Augmented Reality for Robotics: A Review

Zhanat Makhataeva,Huseyin Varol

doi:10.3390/robotics9020021

Abstract

Augmented reality (AR) is used to enhance the perception of the real world by integrating virtual objects to an image sequence acquired from various camera technologies. Numerous AR applications in robotics have been developed in recent years. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of AR research in robotics during the five year period from 2015 to 2019. We classified these works in terms of application areas into four categories: (1) Medical robotics: Robot-Assisted surgery (RAS), prosthetics, rehabilitation, and training systems; (2) Motion planning and control: trajectory generation, robot programming, simulation, and manipulation; (3) Human-robot interaction (HRI): teleoperation, collaborative interfaces, wearable robots, haptic interfaces, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), and gaming; (4) Multi-agent systems: use of visual feedback to remotely control drones, robot swarms, and robots with shared workspace. Recent developments in AR technology are discussed followed by the challenges met in AR due to issues of camera localization, environment mapping, and registration. We explore AR applications in terms of how AR was integrated and which improvements it introduced to corresponding fields of robotics. In addition, we summarize the major limitations of the presented applications in each category. Finally, we conclude our review with future directions of AR research in robotics. The survey covers over 100 research works published over the last five years.

Highlights

Augmented Reality (AR) has become a popular multidisciplinary research field over the last decades
AR acts as a new medium for interaction and information exchange with autonomous systems increasing the efficiency of the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)
Even though few applications have been developed within this area of robotics until now, we foresee that further development of AR technology will significantly increase the number of works dedicated to the study of AR in swarm robotics

Summary

Introduction

Augmented Reality (AR) has become a popular multidisciplinary research field over the last decades. It has been used in different applications to enhance visual feedback from information systems. The Industry 4.0 paradigm triggered the use of AR in networks of connected physical systems and human-machine communication [1]. Robots are becoming ubiquitous in daily life, extending their traditional home in the industry to other domains such as rehabilitation robotics, social robotics, mobile/aerial robotics, and multi-agent robotic systems [2,3]. AR acts as a new medium for interaction and information exchange with autonomous systems increasing the efficiency of the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)

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