Development of direct operation system for mobile robot by using 3D CG diorama

A gamepad and images from a camera mounted on the robot are generally used in the teleoperation interface for a mobile robot. However, the teleoperation is difficult for inexperienced users. To solve this problem, we propose an interface that mixes and presents both visual and haptic sense. This interface consists of a force feedback device and a camera installed on behind of a display (see-through display). The CG models that simulate a real environment and a real robot, and hands of the operator are shown on the see-through display. The position of the top end of force feedback device at behind of the see-through display is controlled to be the position corresponding to the drawing position of the CG of the robot. The operator feels as if he/she directly grasps the real robot by using proposed interface. In this study, proposed interface is applied to a remote control task of a mobile robot and the evaluation experiment is carried out which task is step-climbing by a teleoperated robot.