Future work · IROS Workshop 2025

A new soft-modeling direction — our future work

While Beyond Heuristics completes the conventional MSD interaction model, we have, in parallel, been exploring a fundamentally different soft modeling method for pHRI. We conceived it even before the MSD pipeline was finished and already obtained promising results, published here as a preliminary study (PHRASE, IROS 2025). Developing this soft-modeling direction into a complete framework is our ongoing future work.

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PHRASE: Personalized Human-Robot Interaction Simulation with Accurate Soft Body Modeling for Safe and Ergonomic Gait Assistance

Yifan Wang*,1, Chengyuan Yang*,1, Vasanthamaran Ravichandram1, Sherwin Stephen Chan1, Chun Kwang Tan1, Wei Tech Ang1
1Nanyang Technological University
*Indicates equal contribution
Soft modeling method for pHRI · preliminary
IROS Workshop 2025

Abstract

Personalizing gait-assistive robots is limited by safety and ethical constraints, which motivates studying physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) in human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation — yet real pHRI is hard to replicate because existing models overlook the complex soft-contact dynamics that matter most during falls. We present PHRASE, a first-of-its-kind soft-pHRI simulation in MuJoCo that combines a personalized soft human model (via SKEL), an elastic strap model, and a virtual buckle–hole tightness controller. Across two subjects and three tightness levels, simulated waistline forces grow with tightening and body-mass index and reveal peak-force regions linked to discomfort, guiding more ergonomic strap and robot design.

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