Force reflection-based virtual object exploration

摘要

This paper presents a virtual teleoperation system for use in a virtual object exploration experiment. The virtual teleoperation system is composed of a real master manipulator, graphic simulator, and virtual force sensor. The real master manipulator has 6+1 degree-of-freedom. The graphic simulator is utilized to represent the virtual slave manipulator and virtual work environment, and to provide visual information to the human operator. The virtual slave manipulator is manipulated following commands sent from the real master manipulator. A virtual force sensor is introduced to measure the contact force occurring between the virtual slave manipulator and the virtual work environment. Two virtual objects with two stiffness values, wall and hexahedron are used in the virtual object exploration experiment. Six work conditions are considered in the experiment. It is demonstrated that, from the experimental results, time delayed visual and force information may deteriorate teleoperation efficiency and stability. It is demonstrated that it is not easy to explore a discontinuous boundary, and that both real-time vision ad force information need to recognize a discontinuous boundary. It is also concluded that the virtual object's stiffness greatly affects teleoperation accuracy and stability.