An Internet-based tele-robot environment for a time critical task

The subjects of this paper is to catch a ball falling on the slope using the control command which is sent from a remote operation side. The task side is constructed with a ball position detecting system and a ball catching robot system. The detecting system consists of two CCD cameras and an image processing system. The robot system is a 5 degree-of-freedom manipulator and has a small basket for receiving a ball. In order to control this system, operation commands are transmitted through Internet. The tele-robot system is be compensated for mis-operation caused by transmission time delay and data packet loss problems. The authors construct an automatic operation method for the tele-operation system. The control system is based on a data prediction system. The prediction system estimates a future ball position, which is compensated for data packet loss and time delay. The experimental results show that the robot can catch the ball when the time delay is less than 500 ms.