Force reflecting teleoperation Via IPv6 protocol with geometric constraints haptic guidance

Abstract

When dealing with teleoperated systems, several important aspects have to be considered: unstructured environment, communication delay, human operator uncertainty, and safety at the remote site, amongst others. The main contribution of this work, that tackles some of the aforementioned issues, is a system that combines a force feedback teleoperation scheme with geometric constraints and haptic guidance. The allowed motion space of a robot can be reduced by specifying a set of geometric relations between the robot tool and the workcell's fixed objects. These relations are processed by a geometric reasoning module that generates a compatible motion subspace. Restriction forces are then fed to the operator via a haptic interface in order to guide its movements inside this subspace. The communication channel between the local center and the remote cell is implemented using high speed networks with the novel IPv6 protocol. The slave robot control is based on position or velocity. Experimental results validate the proposed approach. © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.