Obstacle collision prevention using a virtual stick and vibration

This paper proposes a method that can prevent remote mobile robots colliding with obstacles. The method uses tactile and visual senses. Visual sense is represented by the virtual stick. The virtual stick is a method that represents obstacle distance by color. The obstacle distance is obtained by the robotpsilas infrared sensors. The user can distinguish dangerous and safe distances between robot and obstacle. The tactile sense is delivered by vibration. The vibration system delivers the obstacle distance as the period and magnitude of the vibration. The user can approximate the position and distance of an obstacle. In this paper these two methods are combined to prevent collision. The user can simultaneously use visual and tactile senses to detect obstacles. Therefore the user can instinctively recognize obstacles in a remote area.