Distributed Software Architecture for Collaborative Teleoperation based on Networked Mixed Reality Platforms

Augmented Reality (AR) can provide to a Human Operator (HO) a real help to achieve complex tasks such as remote control of robots and cooperative tele-assistance. Using appropriate augmentations, the HO can interact faster, safer and easier with the remote real world. This paper presents distributed software and network architecture for collaborative telework based on networked human-scaled mixed reality platforms. An example of telework is presented as a teleoperation of the remote 4 Degree of Freedom (DoF) robot. An important feature of this interface is based on the use of two different technological platforms to control the robot. The first platform located at IBISC (Evry) uses an Augmented Reality (AR) video feedback while the interaction is done using an optical tracking system ART Advanced Real-time Tracking. The second platform located at LISA (Angers) uses a Virtual Reality (VR) video feedback and a SPIDAR system for robot control and interaction. The platforms are linked to each others via Internet and a website provides a triple video feedback including the two platforms and the robot. Audio communication is achieved with GSM to save bandwidth.