Development of the flexible observation system for a virtual reality excavator using the head tracking system

Operating excavator on the risk surroundings is not safe for human to control on site. Consequently, automatic excavator called Field Robot has been researched to protect the workers from the hazardous environments. The remote excavation system is required to perform in such environments. This paper presents the study on remote control system for the Field Robot and augmented reality vision for user using head tracker system. The design of the remote control system that consist Remote Station and Filed Robot. In Remote Station, user can send the control commands through wireless communication. Besides, the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor is integrated in a head mounted display (HMD) to track the motion of human's head. These signals are transferred to the pan/tilt motor controller and to operate the motion of the CCD camera following the movement of operator's head. The Field Robot is also contributed and some experiments are carried out to prove the feasibility of the proposed system.