Development of a tele-operation simulator based on virtual reality environment for advanced unmanned construction

This paper describes a tele-operation simulator using a virtual reality (VR) environment for advanced unmanned construction. VR simulators, which can measure arbitrary data, reproduce the same situations, and change the machine and environmental configurations more easily, compared with actual environments, are effective to create tele-operation technologies and quantitatively evaluate them as well as to improve operational skills in complex disaster response works. In this basic study, a VR simulator including a VR environment, operation-input, and video-output components was developed. (i) The VR environment is built using a basic graphic library and dynamics engine. (ii) The operation-input component consists of control levers for a demolition machine with a grapple and environmental cameras with yaw, pitch, and zoom functions. (iii) The video-output component consists of a two-dimensional monitor for displaying an in-vehicle camera view, environmental camera views, and machine status. The results of experiments conducted to transport debris using the VR simulator indicated that the operators adequately completed the debris transport in the VR environment while watching the monitor views from the in-vehicle and environmental cameras.