Mobile robot teleoperation system utilizing virtual world

This paper discusses the problems in teleoperation systems for mobile robots and the use of a virtual world in these systems. In order to achieve smooth operation of the mobile robot via the communication link, we should consider the delays in data transfer. To compensate the incomplete data sets, virtual images can be generated by computer graphics when the information of the working environment can be acquired beforehand. We construct a virtual world teleoperation system. The performance of the system is examined through experiments with an actual mobile robot. It is shown that the virtual robot can be operated by a human operator in almost the same manner as a teleoperated real robot