Teleoperation of a mobile robot through haptic feedback

Teleoperation systems have been developed in order to allow a human operator to perform complex tasks in remote environments. Mobile robots can be considered as a particular example of telemanipulation systems, since they can be operated remotely to perform particular tasks. As an example, the inspection of underwater structures and the removal of mines are performed by mobile platforms controlled by a remote operator, which generally takes advantage only of the visual feedback provided by vision systems. In this sense, the nature and completeness of the data provided to the operator about the state of the remote system are of crucial importance for proper task execution, and it is generally accepted that a more efficient achievement of the task can be obtained by increasing the amount of data feedback and using proper MMI. In this paper, the use of a haptic interface is proposed in order to increase a user's perception of the workspace of a mobile robot. In particular, a virtual interaction force is computed on the basis of obstacles surrounding the mobile vehicle in order to prevent dangerous contacts, so that navigation tasks can be carried out with generally better performances. In addition, passivity of the overall system is taken into account, so that stability of the virtual interaction is guaranteed.