In this work, a novel interface for robot teleoperation has been developed on a Baxter robot, to provide enhanced user experience, and it can be easily adapted to other robot platforms. The main objective of the this work is to provide an operator with an immersive interface when controlling a a telerobot arm (to see and feel what a robot sees and feels). This objective has been achieved using a haptic feedback device (Geomagic Touch), virtual reality headset (Oculus Rift DK2), and RGB-D camera (Kinect v2). An operator can manipulate a robotic arm (Baxter robot made by Rethink Robotics) and receive force feedback information about interactions between the robot's grippers, as well as the robot's environment; whilst viewing RGB-D captured visual information of the robot's workspace, on the screen of the virtual reality headset. A servo motor driving platform has been designed as a new robot head to manipulate the RGB-D camera on top of it, such that an operator can control the orientation of the RGB-D camera (pan and tilt) in a natural manner via the wearable virtual reality headset. The orientation of the built in inertial measurement unit of the virtual reality headset is used to directly command the angles of head platform on which the RGB-D camera is mounted. The operator is provided with an immersive and in-depth experience when manipulating the robotic arm to complete given tasks. Extensive tests have been performed to evaluate the design in this work with quantified analysis. [ Ссылка ]
