A human-robot interface using an extended digital desk

Much attention has been paid to augmented reality (AR) systems, which can enhance a human's daily life by blending multi-modal information with the real world. Most existing AR systems provide such information for humans by using monitor displays or see-through head mounted displays as interface devices. In applying AR to human-robot interfaces in teaching tasks, however, alternative systems should be developed to overcome the limitations of the existing interfaces and to allow for more flexible interaction. The paper presents an attempt to make such an interface using an extended digital desk for guiding and teaching robot tasks. A prototype system consists of a projector subsystem for information display and a real time tracking vision subsystem for recognizing human's action. Two levels of interaction have been developed: (1) VOP, virtual operational panel for primitive robot operations and (2) IIP, interactive image panel for intuitive teaching using a projected live image of the task environment. Experiments of teaching robot tasks demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed system.