Teleoperated Service Robot with an Immersive Mixed Reality Interface

Teleoperated service robots can perform more complex and precise tasks as they combine robot skills and human expertise. Communication between the operator and the robot is essential for remote operation and strongly affects system efficiency. Immersive interfaces are being used to enhance teleopera...

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Main Authors: Angelica Nakayama, Daniel Ruelas, Jesus Savage, Ernesto Bribiesca
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg Federal Research Center 2021-12-01
Series:Информатика и автоматизация
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ia.spcras.ru/index.php/sp/article/view/15069
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author Angelica Nakayama
Daniel Ruelas
Jesus Savage
Ernesto Bribiesca
author_facet Angelica Nakayama
Daniel Ruelas
Jesus Savage
Ernesto Bribiesca
author_sort Angelica Nakayama
collection DOAJ
description Teleoperated service robots can perform more complex and precise tasks as they combine robot skills and human expertise. Communication between the operator and the robot is essential for remote operation and strongly affects system efficiency. Immersive interfaces are being used to enhance teleoperation experience. However, latency or time delay can impair the performance of the robot operation. Since remote visualization involves transmitting a large amount of video data, the challenge is to decrease communication instability. Then, an efficient teleoperation system must have a suitable operation interface capable of visualizing the remote environment, controlling the robot, and having a fast response time. This work presents the development of a service robot teleoperation system with an immersive mixed reality operation interface where the operator can visualize the real remote environment or a virtual 3D environment representing it. The virtual environment aims to reduce the latency on communication by reducing the amount of information sent over the network and improve user experience. The robot can perform navigation and simple tasks autonomously or change to the teleoperated mode for more complex tasks. The system was developed using ROS, UNITY 3D, and sockets to be exported with ease to different platforms. The experiments suggest that having an immersive operation interface provides improved usability for the operator. The latency appears to improve when using the virtual environment. The user experience seems to benefit from the use of mixed reality techniques; this may lead to the broader use of teleoperated service robot systems.
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spelling doaj.art-18e7bb28e5ed4854866d27ddfcfea5a92023-09-03T13:31:39ZengRussian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg Federal Research CenterИнформатика и автоматизация2713-31922713-32062021-12-012061187122310.15622/ia.20.6.115069Teleoperated Service Robot with an Immersive Mixed Reality InterfaceAngelica Nakayama0Daniel Ruelas1Jesus Savage2Ernesto Bribiesca3National Autonomous University of MexicoNational Autonomous University of MexicoNational Autonomous University of MexicoNational Autonomous University of MexicoTeleoperated service robots can perform more complex and precise tasks as they combine robot skills and human expertise. Communication between the operator and the robot is essential for remote operation and strongly affects system efficiency. Immersive interfaces are being used to enhance teleoperation experience. However, latency or time delay can impair the performance of the robot operation. Since remote visualization involves transmitting a large amount of video data, the challenge is to decrease communication instability. Then, an efficient teleoperation system must have a suitable operation interface capable of visualizing the remote environment, controlling the robot, and having a fast response time. This work presents the development of a service robot teleoperation system with an immersive mixed reality operation interface where the operator can visualize the real remote environment or a virtual 3D environment representing it. The virtual environment aims to reduce the latency on communication by reducing the amount of information sent over the network and improve user experience. The robot can perform navigation and simple tasks autonomously or change to the teleoperated mode for more complex tasks. The system was developed using ROS, UNITY 3D, and sockets to be exported with ease to different platforms. The experiments suggest that having an immersive operation interface provides improved usability for the operator. The latency appears to improve when using the virtual environment. The user experience seems to benefit from the use of mixed reality techniques; this may lead to the broader use of teleoperated service robot systems.http://ia.spcras.ru/index.php/sp/article/view/15069teleoperated robotservice robotimmersive operation interfacemixed reality interfacevirtual reality environment
spellingShingle Angelica Nakayama
Daniel Ruelas
Jesus Savage
Ernesto Bribiesca
Teleoperated Service Robot with an Immersive Mixed Reality Interface
Информатика и автоматизация
teleoperated robot
service robot
immersive operation interface
mixed reality interface
virtual reality environment
title Teleoperated Service Robot with an Immersive Mixed Reality Interface
title_full Teleoperated Service Robot with an Immersive Mixed Reality Interface
title_fullStr Teleoperated Service Robot with an Immersive Mixed Reality Interface
title_full_unstemmed Teleoperated Service Robot with an Immersive Mixed Reality Interface
title_short Teleoperated Service Robot with an Immersive Mixed Reality Interface
title_sort teleoperated service robot with an immersive mixed reality interface
topic teleoperated robot
service robot
immersive operation interface
mixed reality interface
virtual reality environment
url http://ia.spcras.ru/index.php/sp/article/view/15069
work_keys_str_mv AT angelicanakayama teleoperatedservicerobotwithanimmersivemixedrealityinterface
AT danielruelas teleoperatedservicerobotwithanimmersivemixedrealityinterface
AT jesussavage teleoperatedservicerobotwithanimmersivemixedrealityinterface
AT ernestobribiesca teleoperatedservicerobotwithanimmersivemixedrealityinterface