Projective virtual reality: Bridging the gap between virtual reality and robotics

Latest experiences in industrial and space applications have shown, that the symbiosis of virtual reality techniques with versatile robot control techniques can break new grounds in the field of virtual reality applications as well as in the field of robotics. In this context, the new paradigm of projective virtual reality is presented as a sophisticated new approach to the control and supervision of robotic and automation systems. The idea behind projective virtual reality is to "project" actions that are carried out by users in the virtual world into the real world, primarily by means of robots but also by other means of automation. Robot control technology thus provides the user in the virtual reality with a "prolonged arm'' into the physical environment, paving the way for a new quality of a user-friendly man machine interface for automation applications. The paper provides the background of projective virtual reality which is based on latest results in the fields of task planning, world modeling, cooperative robot control and sensor-based robot control.