Abstract
Teleoperation permits to control robots from a safe distance while performing tasks in a remote environment. Kinematic differences between the input device and the remotely controlled manipulator or the existence of redundancy in the remote robot may pose challenges in moving intuitively the remote robot as desired by the human operator. Motivated by the above challenges, this work introduces TelePhysicalOperation, a novel teloperation concept, which relies on a virtual physical interaction interface between the human operator and the remote robot in a manner that is equivalent to a “Marionette” based interaction interface. With the proposed approach, the user can virtually “interact” with the remote robot, through the application of virtual forces, which are generated by the operator tracking system and can be then selectively applied to any body part of the remote robot along its kinematic chain. This leads to the remote robot generating motions that comply with the applied virtual forces, thanks to the underlying control architecture. The proposed method permits to command the robot from a distance by exploring the intuitiveness of the “Marionette” based physical interaction with the robot in a virtual/remote manner. The details of the proposed approach are introduced and its effectiveness is demonstrated through a number of experimental trials executed on the CENTAURO, a hybrid leg-wheel platform with an anthropomorphic upper body.
Highlights
R OBOTIC teleoperation is one of the oldest fields in robotics [1], but yet an active and evolving research topic finding application in very diverse domains like disaster response [2], surface finishing [3], construction industry [4]Manuscript received September 9, 2021; accepted January 2, 2022
A very intuitive way to effectively guide and teach a robot how to execute a task is by physically interacting and driving it by applying forces on different parts of its body. Such direct physical Human Robot Interaction (pHRI) may not be possible for safety reasons in case of robotic systems with elevated power capabilities. By considering these observations and blending the teleoperation and the pHRI concepts, in this work we propose a novel approach, the TelePhysicalOperation, which enables the teleoperation of a remote mobile manipulation platform through a virtual physical interaction interface that enables the operator to generate and selectively apply virtual forces along the kinematic chain of the remote robot in a manner that resembles a user physically interacting with the robot through a virtual “Marionette” type of interface
We have presented TelePhysicalOperation, a novel concept to improve the classical robot teleoperation by exploring virtual physical human robot interactions through the intuitiveness of an approach that resembles controlling the remote robot in a “Marionette” based manner
Summary
R OBOTIC teleoperation is one of the oldest fields in robotics [1], but yet an active and evolving research topic finding application in very diverse domains like disaster response [2], surface finishing [3], construction industry [4]. A very intuitive way to effectively guide and teach a robot how to execute a task is by physically interacting and driving it by applying forces on different parts of its body. Such direct pHRI may not be possible for safety reasons in case of robotic systems with elevated power capabilities.
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