Robot teleoperation and perception assistance with a virtual holographic display

Abstract

Teleoperation of robots in space from Earth has historically been dfficult. Speed of light delays make direct joystick-type control infeasible, so it is desirable to command a robot in a very high-level fashion. However, in order to provide such an interface, knowledge of what objects are in the robot's environment and how they can be interacted with is required. In addition, many tasks that would be desirable to perform are highly spatial, requiring some form of six degree of freedom input. These two issues can be combined, allowing the user to assist the robot's perception by identifying the locations of objects in the scene. The zSpace system, a virtual holographic environment, provides a virtual 3D space superimposed over real space and a stylus tracking position and rotation inside of it. Using this system, a possible interface for this sort of robot control is proposed.