Dynamic kinesthetic boundary for haptic teleoperation of unicycle type ground mobile robots

This paper presents the design of a novel dynamic kinesthetic boundary (DKB) for haptic teleoperation of unicycle type ground mobile robots. The kinematics of unicycle type vehicles impose significant challenges for applying DKB in teleoperation of such vehicles, where the DKB was originally proposed for teleoperation of Vertical Taking-Off and Landing (VTOL) aerial robots. Modifications to DKB is incorporated to facilitate the pilot's perception of the remote environment at the local master haptic workspace and obstacle avoidance for unicycle type robots. Analysis on the proposed DKB's obstacle avoidance performance is provided. Both simulation and experimental study were conducted, and the outcomes verify the analysis and confirm the feasibility of the application of the novel DKB in teleoperation tasks.