Shared intelligence for telerobots: human interface with local intelligence

In this paper, we discuss the design of a human interface to the local intelligence unit. We map our environment consisting of the slave robot and the objects around it into the configuration space by using a mathematical transformation in which every revolute joint angle is mapped as /sub xi/=tan /spl theta//sub i//2 leading us to develop the free space in term of logical operations on polynomial entities. Configuration space could be the "joint variables space" or the "transformed joint variables" as in our methodology. It is possible to detect collision of one dimensional paths parameterized by polynomials in a variable s. The sampled points of the path input by the operator through the master arm is not necessarily collision free. The local intelligence unit checks for collisions and reports back to the operator the colliding segments, if any. To achieve this feature the input path has to to be interpreted appropriately for collision detection to be performed. The proper curve fitting of the input path such that the collision detection can be performed is also studied.<>