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Adv. Manuf. (2014) 2:275288 DOI 10.1007/s40436-014-0087-9
Novel AR-based interface for human-robot interaction and visualization
H. C. Fang S. K. Ong A. Y. C. Nee
Received: 5 December 2013 / Accepted: 8 July 2014 / Published online: 9 August 2014 Shanghai University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
Abstract Intuitive and efcient interfaces for human-robot interaction (HRI) has been a challenging issue in robotics as it is essential for the prevalence of robots supporting humans in key areas of activities. This paper presents a novel augmented reality (AR) based interface to facilitate human-virtual robot interaction. A number of human-virtual robot interaction methods have been formulated and implemented with respect to the various types of operations needed in different robotic applications. A Euclidean distance-based method is developed to assist the users in the interaction with the virtual robot and the spatial entities in an AR environment. A monitor-based visualization mode is adopted as it enables the users to perceive the virtual contents associated with different interaction methods, and the virtual content augmented in the real environment is informative and useful to the users during their interaction with the virtual robot. Case researches are presented to demonstrate the successful implementation of the AR-based HRI interface in planning robot pick-and-place operations and path following operations.
Keywords Human-robot interaction (HRI)
Human-robot interface Augmented reality (AR)
1 Introduction
Human-robot interaction (HRI) is referred to as the process that conveys the human operators intentions and interprets the task descriptions into a sequence of robot motions complying with the robot capabilities and the working requirements. The identication of suitable interaction methods and interfaces for HRI has been a challenging issue in robotics as it is essential for the prevalence of robots supporting humans in key areas of activities.
Robots can be classied into two general categories, namely, industrial and service robots. Industrial robots are used in various industrial processes where the tasks are often executed in structured environments. These industrial robots, often with little autonomous capability, need to be re-programmed for a new task, in which the robots may need a different tool, xture or environment [1]. Service robots are usually operated semi- or fully autonomously for the well-being of humans or equipment in unstructured environment. Therefore, suitable human-robot interfaces developed for robots of...