Experiments with a steady hand robot in constrained compliant motion and path following

We consider the problem of cooperative manipulation to improve positioning and path following abilities of humans. Using a specially designed actuated manipulator and "steady hand" manipulation we report on compliant path following strategies and their experimental evaluation. Detecting lines and simple curves by processing images from an endoscope mounted on the robot, we traverse these curves autonomously, under direct user control, and in an augmented mode of user control. Anisotropic gains based on gradient information from the imaging reduce errors in path traversal.