Teleoperated substitute robot with swing-type obstacle sensor

Abstract

A teleoperated substitute robot with a swing-type obstacle sensor is proposed in this paper. The teleoperated robot can, for example, act as a substitute for a child who is staying in a hospital room. Also, a person can take care of his/her elderly parents from overseas using the substitute robot. The two personal computers of the robot and an operator are connected using the Internet. Using a CCD camera, a speaker, a microphone and a PC display, both persons can communicate with each other. A swing-type obstacle sensor and an easy graphical human interface are proposed in order to ease the difficulties of remote operation. The design of the swing-type obstacle sensor has the advantage of cutting down the sensor numbers and the system cost. The system concept, the obstacle sensor, the human interface and some of the experimental results are presented. The validity of the robot system was confirmed by the application experiments with the assistance of a bedridden person.