Omni-Directional Vision and 3D Robot Animation Based Teleoperation of Hydraulically Actuated Hexapod Robot COMET-IV

Recently, the use of robots has been increasing into various fields, and is not only for industrial use. The expectations of using robots for support operations in disaster areas are increasing, to avoid the danger of secondary disasters that might occur. We are developing a hydraulically actuated hexapod robot COMET-IV, which aims to support a variety of activities in dangerous environments where humans cannot go. Currently, it is very difficult to implement fully autonomous robots in stricken areas. For this reason, teleoperational control of robots is an indispensable technology to be introduced. We believe that the performance of the teleoperation could be improved if it were possible for the operator to observe the robot conditions and surroundings in real time on a computer screen. We have proposed a teleoperation system that applies an omni-directional vision sensor and real time 3D animation of robots. Obstacle avoidance walking experiments conducted in an outdoor environment have indicated the effectiveness of the proposed system.