On the interaction between human hand and robot-from space to surgery

Robot programming has always been a central topic in industrial robotics as well as in robotics research. Classical teaching is still wide-spread and with many robots the programmers still press buttons for left, fight, up, down etc. with an extra switch for velocity. Off-line programming does not solve this problem, as in the 3D-graphics world, too, one has to move the robot somewhere in 6 degrees of freedom. On the other hand more than 50 programming languages have been developed without yielding a real breakthrough. Thus after more than 25 years in robotics research we are fairly sure that learning by showing and/or direct guidance and intuitive interaction remains one of the most promising techniques in robot programming. If we are talking about service and human friendly robots, intuitive interaction is the key issue. It seems that there are three major alternatives for intuitive man-robot interaction: voice; human hand; and human face. It is outlined in which way these techniques so far have entered the programming of industrial robots but especially the remote control of space and surgical robots. In particular DLR's experience with the first remotely controlled space robots ROTEX and ETS VII as well as ongoing work towards remote control of the Canadian space station arm are discussed.