Kinematic control and visual display of redundant teleoperators

A framework is proposed for helping the operator of a redundant teleoperator to perform tasks in a 3D environment. The aid is implemented on a graphics workstation. Kinematic control of the redundant teleoperator is performed by specifying end-effector trajectories and using a numerical inverse kinematic algorithm to determine positions of the intermediate links of the teleoperator. Also proposed are graphic displays that aid the operator in the execution of tasks. Experiments with a twelve-degrees-of-freedom vehicle manipulator system that were conducted to compare these suggestions with other methods of kinematic control and display indicate that the proposed framework results in superior performance by reducing both task completion times and collision with obstacles in the environment