A mechanical intelligence in assisting the navigation by a force feedback steering wheel for a snake rescue robot

This paper applies our developed novice users oriented force feedback steering wheel interface and mouse interface to navigating a tank type rescue robot. By analyzing merits and limitation of operating each interface, we propose a combined navigation strategy by the two interfaces. The steering wheel interface consists of a force feedback steering control and a six monitors’ wall. Through this interface, users can navigate the tank robot like driving cars, while watching incoming videos. It provides a daily life operation method for novice users to navigate the tank rescue robot. The steering wheel interface is efficient in exploring open areas. For complex disaster fields, this interface requires users have skillful operation experiences, which take them more attention. The mouse-screen interface consists of a mouse and a camera’s view displayed in a computer screen. Through this interface, users can navigate the tank robot just by mouse clicking. Path planning and low-level controlling are realized by system automatically. The mouse-screen interface can realize exact navigation, especially needed in complex structures, without taking much attention. It gives users more time to care incoming information. The two interfaces can shift into each other at any time. The combined navigation strategy adopts merits of the two interfaces and compensates limitation of each of them. It provides an efficient operation method for novice users to navigate rescue robots.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ROMAN.2004.1374739
Published with permission from the copyright holder.this is the institute's copy, as published in Information Visualization, 20-22 Sept. 2004, Pages 113-118.
Publisher URL:http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ROMAN.2004.1374739
Copyright © 2004 IEEE. All rights reserved.