Adaptive Aid on Targeted Robot Manipulator Movements in Tele-Assistance

Abstract

Abstract:The teleoperation of robot manipulators over the internet suffers from variable delays in the communications. Here we address a tele-assistance scenario, where a remote operator assists a disabled or elderly user on daily life tasks. Our behavioral approach uses local environment information from robot sensing to help enable faster execution for a given movement tolerance. This is achieved through a controller that automatically slows the operator down before having collisions, using a set of distributed proximity sensors. The controller is made to gradually increase the assistance in situations similar to those where ollisions have occurred in the past, thus adapting to the given operator, robot and task-set. Two controlled virtual experiments for tele-assistance with a 5 DOF manipulator were performed, with 300 ms and 600 ms mean variable round-trip delays. The results showed significant improvements in the median times of 12.6% and 16.5%, respectively. Improvements in the subjective workload were also seen with the controller. A first implementation on a physical robot manipulator is described.

Proximity Perception in Human-Centered Robotics: A Survey on Sensing Systems and Applications

“…Stoelen et al [133], [134] presented their approaches using whole-arm sensitive robots. The application is a teleoperated robot arm with shared autonomy, which is based on the signals of the proximity sensors.…”

“…The authors use machine learning to enable the robot to predict collisions from proximity sensor values based on prior experience. Therefore, the velocity of the robot is limited and force feedback through a PHANTOM Omni is provided to the operator in [133]. After three days of experiments based on a virtual environment, the authors show that the completion time of tasks, as well as the workload estimated by the users, decreased using the aid of the controller.…”

“…However, we think that the market for automated solutions in health care or service robotics based on proximity perception is there, especially in scenarios where the human is very close to the robot, preventing the sole use of cameras. In this survey, we discussed examples such as grasping of moving objects and handover [29], [66], [67], dressing and washing of patient [36], [37], or assistive robotics based on teleoperation [134], [133]. Overall, we think that medical and service robotics is a promising field for proximity perception, but more research is needed to establish use-cases and the corresponding methods before commercial exploitation appears on the horizon.…”

Proximity Perception in Human-Centered Robotics: A Survey on Sensing Systems and Applications

“…However, we think that the market for automated solutions in health care or service robotics based on proximity perception is there, especially in scenarios where the human is very close to the robot, preventing the sole use of cameras. In this survey, we discussed examples such as grasping of moving objects and handover [29], [66], [67], dressing and washing of patient [36], [37], or assistive robotics based on teleoperation [134], [133]. Overall, we think that medical and service robotics is a promising field for proximity perception, but more research is needed to establish use-cases and the corresponding methods before commercial exploitation appears on the horizon.Furthermore, the study of highly redundant robotic systems that use proximity sensing is scarce.…”