A Telexistence Interface for Remote Control of a Physical Industrial Robot via Data Distribution Service

Abstract

The increasing adoption of remote working practices and internet-based systems highlights the need for a new mode of interaction and communication interfaces between humans and machines. Current human-machine interfaces (HMI) are based on complex controllers that are not intuitive for a novice or remote operators. The increase in skills required in today's manufacturing environment allows the use of telexistence capabilities to facilitate human-robot collaboration. We propose a digital-twin based framework with a telexistence interface as a means to reduce the complexity of operating and programming an industrial robot. To remotely control the industrial robot, sensors data are shared via a data distribution service (DDS). The immersive virtual reality (VR) interface is deployed for effective control and monitoring of the industrial robot. Telexistence capabilities allow intuitive manipulation and are combined with real-time data visualization of the robot through the digital twin. The interface is implemented with the Unity 3D engine and connected to a console application that collects sensor data and shares them via a DDS connectivity framework. A simple experiment with a physical FANUC M20-IA industrial robot and Azure Kinect RGBD cameras shows the reliable performance when a robot path request was sent by a remote operator through DDS and the immersive VR interface. We then discuss future work and use cases for this telexistence platform to support maintenance activities in manufacturing contexts.