Motion Assistance System for Telesports by Seamlessly Blending Manual and Automatic Throwing Controls

Telesport, which involves playing sports via avatar robots, has the potential to provide people with physical limitations with the chance to participate in sports, as it allows them to replace their bodies with robots. However, the delay in the teleoperation system makes real-time operation difficult, and it is challenging to operate the agile robot as intended. In this study, we focused on overhand throwing and treated the problem of it being difficult to throw the ball in the intended direction and speed using manual control. In order to accurately realise the agile movements that a user intends, we propose an assistance system that intervenes with automatic control based on the estimated future user’s intent for manual control. Furthermore, this assistance system blends manual and automatic control seamlessly to prevent the user from feeling disconnected from the robot due to the intervention of automatic control. The assistance system was evaluated by measuring the direction and speed of the ball thrown overhand, and by assessing whether the user’s intent was reflected. As a result, by making the assistance system effective, manual and automatic control were seamlessly blended, and it was confirmed that the throwing motion intended by the user was accurately reflected in the robot.