Experimental operability evaluation of remote control with force feedback for mobile robot

Abstract

This paper describes the experimental operability evaluation of a remote control method with a force feedback for a mobile robot. By using the force feedback in the remote control system, it is possible to recognize the environmental information as the tactile sensation. In the conventional remote control methods, the force feedback is generated based on the geometric position relation between the mobile robot and environment. On the other hand, this paper shows the force feedback based on the collision prediction. The steering type control device with the tactile force feedback is utilized. In addition, the visual sensor is added to the remote control system for the visual feedback. Therefore, the operator manipulates the control device based on the visual and tactile information. In order to evaluate these remote control methods, the experimental results by 5 subjects are shown. The operability improvement by using the remote control method based on the collision prediction was experimentally proved.