Low cost pointing device for robotic systems

In this paper the very simple and low cost pointing device for robotic systems is described. The set-up has been specially designed to apply in the "IRp6 teleoperator" application. The solution proposed in that article is based on the one of the easiest technique of pointing the destination point of robot's movement. The human operator points the position to achieve by two laser pointers. The industrial IRp6 robot performs given command and moves to the target point. The described low cost pointing device enables to define target points in three dimensional space. The idea demanded constructing special hardware, preparing software and user interface front end. The described laser pointer device has been tested successfully in the laboratory teleoperator system. The experiments confirmed usefulness of the unit for handling in real time various objects in the teleoperator workspace in very easy, natural and instinctive way. In close future we plan to introduce the described solution to other application. We are going to use that pointing technique to input the program to industrial robots. That method might be very useful in "teaching program mode" which demands pointing many different points to define the whole trajectory of robot's movement.