Improvement on an obstacle avoidance in telepresence robot

Abstract

This paper proposes a simple obstacle avoidance method for telepresence robot that is designed for families with elderly people living in remote areas. The proposed method is as follows: 1) Obstacle points are measured by tilting a LRF (Laser Range Finder), 2) Obstacle points that are inside a circle (Radius 0.75cm) at the center of LRF are projected to the arch of the circle, and 3) Openings that the robot passes through are searched. The proposed simple method is for manually operated robot system. When an opening is not found, the robot stops and an operator move the robot by remote operation to search an opening. Thanks to this method, the robot can therefore move around near desks and chairs.