Manual control approach to the teaching of a robot task

This paper considers the generation of skillful control actions, which require high experience of a task, by manual control using a master-slave manipulator. The authors have shown that a robot manipulator can be “taught” a skilled task using a “teaching method” based on manual control at a master manipulator. It takes, however, a long time for a human operator to control the master-slave manipulator satisfactorily when the task is complicated. In this paper, an iterative modification method using the master-slave manipulator (IMMSM) is proposed, which makes it possible to improve the movement of the slave based on performance evaluation. As the master-slave manipulator is usually used in teleoperation, the master is complicated and expensive because of the high maneuverability required. By applying the proposed method, a simple device like a joystick can be used. Using a joystick and a small manipulator, the authors have investigated the effect of IMMSM allowing iteration in the “teaching” of a simple task. The experimental results show that the operator can “teach” a skilled task to the robot manipulator using IMMSM. The oscillation frequency of the task error becomes large as progress is made through iterative modifications and the operator, finally, can not modify the high frequency signal any further. To avoid this confusing development for the operator the high frequency signal of the master manipulator is restricted by a function like a low-pass filter. In an experiment, it is confirmed that a filtering function helps the human operator to perform IMMSM more accurately