Telerobotic systems using virtual environment display with visual and force display functions

Abstract

Up to now robot task execution is limited to move the manipulator on the joint or cartesian level from one position into another one. We propose the so-called tele-sensor-programming concept that uses sensory perception to bring local autonomy onto the manipulator level. This approach is applicable both in the real robot's world and in the simulated one. Beside the graphical offline programming concept the range of application lies especially in the field of teleoperation with large time delays. The feasibility of graphically simulating the robot within its environment is extended by emulating different sensor functions like distance, force-torque and vision sensors to achieve a correct copy of the real system behaviour. These simulation features are embedded into a task-oriented high-level robot programming approach. The realization is described by the ROTEX experiment of the German D2 spacelab mission.