A VR Teleoperation Suite with Manipulation Assist
PubDate: March 2021
Teams: 1United States Air Force Academy, 2Brown University, 3 George Mason University
Writers: Christian Barentine;Andrew McNay;Ryan Pfaffenbichler;Addyson Smith;Eric Rosen;Elizabeth Phillips
PDF: A VR Teleoperation Suite with Manipulation Assist
Abstract
Advances in the capabilities of technologies like virtual reality (VR) and their rapid proliferation at consumer price points, have made it much easier to integrate them into existing robotic frameworks. VR interfaces are promising for robotics for several reasons, including that they may be suitable for resolving many of the human performance issues associated with traditional robot teleoperation interfaces used for robot manipulation. In this systems-focused paper, we introduce and document the development of a VR-based robot control paradigm with manipulation assist control algorithm, which allows human operators to specify larger manipulation goals while leaving the low-level details of positioning, manipulation and grasping to the robot itself. For the community, we also describe system design challenges to our progress thus far.