A Study on Robot Motion Authoring System using Finger-Robot Interaction

Abstract

Abstract – This paper proposes a robot motion authoring system using finger-robot interaction. The proposed robot motion authoring tool is a user-friendly method that easily authors creates and controls robot motion according to the number of fingers. Furthermore, the system can be used to simulate user-created robot contents in the 3D virtual environment. This allows the user to not only view the authoring process in real time but also transmit the final authored contents. The effectiveness of the proposed motion authoring system was verified based on motion authoring simulation of an industrial robot. Keywords : Finger-robot interaction, Industrial robot, Robot motion authoring system 1. Introduction With rapid developments in today's robot technology, robots have been used in a wide range of fields. As the increasing number of applications adopts intelligence, and thus robot requires a new type of robot software environment that allows user to author various commands for robots. However, robots must become easier to use for general users in order to expand the scope of applications of intelligent robots in our everyday life. Based on this request, a number of studies are being conducted regarding new types of user-friendly and intuitive robot motion authoring that can render various motions [1]-[4]. Also, there are research projects actively taking place in human-robot interaction, thanks to the progress that has been made in vision technology. A study is being conducted to develop a finger pad that can replace the computer mouse [5], and there are other studies proposing algorithms to improve hand gesture recognition [6]-[8]. However, user-intuitive or user-friendly robot command authoring tools that focus on facilitating general users are still rare. The lack of user-intuitive or user-friendly tools is likely to create a barrier for providing robot services (commands/motions) that correspond with the preferences and demands of general users including children, the elderly and housewives, who are expected to be the major clients in the service robot industry. This paper proposes a robot motion authoring system using finger-robot interaction. The proposed system is capable of authoring (creating and controlling) robot motion according to the number of fingers. It is an intuitive robot motion authoring method that allows the user to easily author robot motions. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified based on motion authoring simulation of an actual industrial robot.