Feasibility Study of Interaction between Human and Mobile Robot- Operation Instruction by Hand Gesture or Infrared Remote Controller and Its Application -

Abstract

Recently, simple and intuitive operation interface to robot becomes important, because robot use has been extended from industrial manufacturing to personal services. We developed hand gesture detecting device by sensing gesture acceleration and operation instruction system utilizing infrared remote controller. Hand gesture device has two directional acceleration sensor. Magnitude and direction of hand gesture dynamic (over 1G) and static (under 1G) acceleration can be discriminated by micro computer and mobile robot moves forward or backward or rotates following 8 kinds of hand gesture. 8 infrared ray receivers covered by 3.5cm long cylinder that gives directivity are attached around mobile robot. They can recognize remote controller key that is first pushed and the relative direction between robot and operator. Following key operation, mobile robot moves forward or backward or rotates. Further it can follow the operator by utilizing on-board CCD color camera. Experiments show improvement of interaction between human and robot.