Automatic property identification via parameterized constraints

During teleoperation, the automatic identification of remote environment properties has the potential of improving performance by providing task-specific feedback to the operator. Similarly, virtual training systems can be calibrated using such an automatic identification procedure. For those properties which can be described by parameterized constraint equations, this paper provides a method by which the active constraints can be determined during each portion of the remote manipulator's data stream. The parameterized properties can then be estimated from the appropriate data stream segments. The approach Is validated for peg-in-hole insertion using a desktop teleoperator system. The proposed segmentation procedure is compared with manual segmentation to estimate the geometric properties of the peg and hole.