TEACHING MANIPULATION SKILLS TO A ROBOT THROUGH A HAPTIC RENDERED VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

A new paradigm for programming of robotics manipulator to perform complex constrained motion tasks is being studied. The teaching of the manipulation skills to the machine starts by demonstrating those skills in a haptic-rendered virtual environment. Position and contact force and torque data generated in the virtual environment combined with a priori knowledge about the task is used to identify and learn the skills in the newly demonstrated tasks and then to reproduce them in the robotics system. The peg-in-hole insertion problem is used as a study case. The overall concept is described. The methodologies developed to build the virtual environment and to learn the basic skills are presented. Results obtained so far are provided.