Teleoperating a mobile manipulator and a free-flying camera from a single haptic device

© 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksThe paper presents a novel teleoperation system that allows the simultaneous and continuous command of a ground mobile manipulator and a free flying camera, implemented using an UAV, from which the operator can monitor the task execution in real-time. The proposed decoupled position and orientation workspace mapping allows the teleoperation from a single haptic device with bounded workspace of a complex robot with unbounded workspace. When the operator is reaching the position and orientation boundaries of the haptic workspace, linear and angular velocity components are respectively added to the inputs of the mobile manipulator and the flying camera. A user study on a virtual environment has been conducted to evaluate the performance and the workload on the user before and after proper training. Analysis on the data shows that the system complexity is not an obstacle for an efficient performance. This is a first step towards the implementation of a teleoperation system with a real mobile manipulator and a low-cost quadrotor as the free-flying camera.Accepted versio

A framework for robotized teleoperated tasks

"Premio al mejor artículo presentado en ROBOT 2011" atorgat pel Grupo de Robótica, Visión y Control de la Universidad de Sevilla, la Universidad Pablo Olavide i el Centro Avanzado de Tecnologías Aeroespaciales.Teleoperation systems allow the extension of the human operator’s sensing and manipulative capability into a remote environment to perform tasks at a distance, but the time-delays in the communications affect the stability and transparency of such systems. This work presents a teleoperation framework in which some novel tools, such as nonlinear controllers, relational positioning techniques, haptic guiding and augmented reality, are used to increase the sensation of immersion of the human operator in the remote site. Experimental evidence supports the advantages of the proposed framework.Award-winningPostprint (published version

TIMS: A Tactile Internet-Based Micromanipulation System with Haptic Guidance for Surgical Training

Microsurgery involves the dexterous manipulation of delicate tissue or fragile structures such as small blood vessels, nerves, etc., under a microscope. To address the limitation of imprecise manipulation of human hands, robotic systems have been developed to assist surgeons in performing complex microsurgical tasks with greater precision and safety. However, the steep learning curve for robot-assisted microsurgery (RAMS) and the shortage of well-trained surgeons pose significant challenges to the widespread adoption of RAMS. Therefore, the development of a versatile training system for RAMS is necessary, which can bring tangible benefits to both surgeons and patients. In this paper, we present a Tactile Internet-Based Micromanipulation System (TIMS) based on a ROS-Django web-based architecture for microsurgical training. This system can provide tactile feedback to operators via a wearable tactile display (WTD), while real-time data is transmitted through the internet via a ROS-Django framework. In addition, TIMS integrates haptic guidance to `guide' the trainees to follow a desired trajectory provided by expert surgeons. Learning from demonstration based on Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) was used to generate the desired trajectory. User studies were also conducted to verify the effectiveness of our proposed TIMS, comparing users' performance with and without tactile feedback and/or haptic guidance.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. For more details of this project, please view our website: https://sites.google.com/view/viewtims/hom

Haptic guidance with force feedback to assist teleoperation systems via high speed networks

The employment of haptic devices in teleoperation systems and the use of motion restrictions during robot teleoperation provide the operator with increased awareness and can considerably improve the feeling of immersion and moreover his ability to perform complex tasks. In the last decade Internet has become one of the major sources of information. It already connects millions of computers and more than a billion people. Its spectacular growth have lead to the creation of new high speed networks with new capabilities. In the work described in this paper those networks that use recent-creation packet switched protocols like Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) with high Quality of Service (QoS) will serve as the communication channel for the teleoperation system.Peer Reviewe

Haptic feedback in teleoperation in Micro-and Nano-Worlds.

International audienceRobotic systems have been developed to handle very small objects, but their use remains complex and necessitates long-duration training. Simulators, such as molecular simulators, can provide access to large amounts of raw data, but only highly trained users can interpret the results of such systems. Haptic feedback in teleoperation, which provides force-feedback to an operator, appears to be a promising solution for interaction with such systems, as it allows intuitiveness and flexibility. However several issues arise while implementing teleoperation schemes at the micro-nanoscale, owing to complex force-fields that must be transmitted to users, and scaling differences between the haptic device and the manipulated objects. Major advances in such technology have been made in recent years. This chapter reviews the main systems in this area and highlights how some fundamental issues in teleoperation for micro- and nano-scale applications have been addressed. The chapter considers three types of teleoperation, including: (1) direct (manipulation of real objects); (2) virtual (use of simulators); and (3) augmented (combining real robotic systems and simulators). Remaining issues that must be addressed for further advances in teleoperation for micro-nanoworlds are also discussed, including: (1) comprehension of phenomena that dictate very small object (< 500 micrometers) behavior; and (2) design of intuitive 3-D manipulation systems. Design guidelines to realize an intuitive haptic feedback teleoperation system at the micro-nanoscale level are proposed