Virtual Operator Station for Teleoperated Mobile Robots

摘要

This paper deals with utilization of a head-mounted display (HMD) for remote control of mobile robots by a human operator. The main goal is to make control of the robot and navigation in unknown terrain easier for the operator by providing stereoscopic images and using virtual reality. Considered is specifically the new HMD device called Oculus Rift, which is a very interesting device because of its great parameters and low price. The device is described in the beginning, together with some of the specific principles of the Oculus 3D display. Then follows the design of a new graphical user interface for teleoperation -virtual operator station, with main focus on visualization of stereoscopic images from robot cameras. Demonstrated is also a way how to display additional data and information to the operator. The resulting interface is a comfortable and highly effective system suitable both for exploration and manipulation tasks in mobile robotics.