A Multi-layer Approach for Interactive Path Planning Control in Virtual Reality Simulation

Abstract

This work considers path-planning processes for manipulation tasks such as assembly, maintenance or disassembly in a Virtual Reality (VR) context. The approach consists in providing a collaborative system associating a user immersed in VR and an automatic path planning process. It is based on an novel environment model containing semantic, topological and geometric information and an original planning process split in two phases: coarse and fine planning. The automatic planner suggests a path to the user and guides him trough a haptic device. The user can escape from the proposed solution if he wants to explore a possible better way. In this case, the interactive system detects the users intention and computes in real-time a new path taking the users intent into account. Experiments illustrate the different aspects of the proposed approach: multi-representation of the environment, path planning process, users intent prediction and control sharing.