Automatic Camera-work Control For Intelligent Monitoring Of Telerobotic Tasks

Abstract

In t elerobot ic task execii t ion visual inforinat ion, such as TV monitors, is most important. However, in order that TV monitor supports human operator effectively, the monitor should display scenes relevant to task situation. In converitiorial systems, the human operator controls camera direction and viewing range (zooming) manually along with robot task control. It severely increases the burden of the operator. In this paper, we propose an intelligent control system of the monitoring camera for telerobotic task execution. The system supports the human operator by offering automated camera control synchronized with the process of the task execution. The robot tasks are commanded and executed using teleoperation-oriented robot-language. The proposed framework for the intelligent control system utilizes the hierarchical structiire of the language system. Prototype system with two cameras has been built up. Some results from experiments are also included.