A teleoperation system based on generation of artificial forces and sensor-based motion-planning

To achieve an assembly task in a teleoperation, a human operates a slave robot indirectly via a master robot, which are far from each other. The major problem of a teleoperation is how to overcome a transmission delay between a master robot at an operation site and a slave robot at a remote site. To solve this, we we virtual visual and tactile realities in an operation site and sensor-based motion-planning in a remote site. In the operation site, we construct a virtual environment approximating a remote site and then, an. operator selects a good sequence of motions for a virtual slave manipulator by a master manipulator. Unfortunately, the virtual environment is not equal to a remote site, and therefore motion gaps between virtual and real slave manipulators occur To overcome this, a slave robot absorbs the gaps by sensor-based motion-planning in the remote site. Finally, feasibility and robustness of our teleoperation system are ascertained by experiments based on master and slave manipulators and a 3-D graphics workstation.