Programming Robot Interaction Behavior During Kinesthetic Teaching Exploiting sEMG-Based Interfacing and Vibrotactile Feedback

We present a programming-by-demonstration framework that allows users to simultaneously teach both motion and compliance behaviors to collaborative robots. The system integrates a wearable surface electromyography interface and real-time vibrotactile feedback into the kinesthetic teaching process, enabling intuitive point-by-point modulation of robot’s mechanical compliance. Unlike prior methods that focus solely on trajectory or symbolic control, our approach leverages unsupervised co-contraction estimation for continuous impedance shaping, without the need for explicit offline procedures or labeled data. To validate the method, we redesigned and conducted two contact-rich tasks—industrial wiring and a welding-like operation—demonstrated by ten subjects using a 7-degrees of freedom (DOF) collaborative manipulator. Results show that users could effectively program both trajectory and compliant interaction behaviors, highlighting the framework’s potential for intuitive and robust human–robot collaboration.