Abstact

Remote control has been widely adopted in hazardous environments to manipulate dangerous materials while ensuring operators' safety. In particular, hot-cells in nuclear power plants consist of sealed chambers equipped with manipulators for teleoperation. However, conventional remote systems require high levels of concentration and physical effort due to their limited visibility and the inherent mechanical resistance of the leader robots, making sophisticated manipulation difficult. To address these limitations, this study proposes a remote control framework using virtual reality (VR). A VR environment with 3D mapping of the remote workspace allows operators to adapt their viewpoints, and viewpoint-aware command transformation enables intuitive teleoperation. To evaluate the proposed control framework, three participants were recruited, and five target positions were sequentially generated.The experimental results showed that incorporating the operator's viewpoint reduced both the end-effector travel distance and task completion time by approximately 62%.

My Contributions:   

• Implemented hierarchical whole-body control to adjust leader robot's task priorities based on operation modes. 

• Applied a hand guidance task using a force/torque sensor. 

• Developed command transformation algorithm based on operator's view points.