Development of non-restraint remote control system with touch panel and gyroscope sensor

Abstract

Independence support robots using multi joint manipulators are thriving in the field of welfare. Keyboards or joysticks are generally used in the remote operation of the multi joint manipulators. The posture of the multi joint manipulators can be ordered by the angle of the joystick or preconfigured key assignment. These control systems have a problem, however, that the number of operable joints is limited to the number of joystick axes or keyboard buttons. In this study, we propose a remote control system for the multi joint manipulator using touch panel and gyroscope sensor. We call the system TGC (Touch Gyro Control). Miniaturization and performance increase are in progress to various sensors such as gyroscope and touch panel with the development of MEMS technology in recent years. In addition, these sensors have spread rapidly in our living environment. In this study, we use touch panel and gyroscope sensor mounted on a smartphone. The TGC system can control rotational movement of the manipulator using the orientation of the smartphone, translational movement in the horizontal plane using the drag operation of the touch panel display and translational movement in the vertical plane using up and down motion of the arm which is gripping the smartphone. For the quantitative evaluation, we experimented with 3D pointing tasks using the TGC and compared to the conventional method of button-type control. The result of the experiment indicated that the TGC could point faster than conventional button-type method. In addition, we also experimented with the task that grip and transfer screws into a box using 6-DOF manipulator which is controlled by above two methods. The result of this experiment also showed the advantage of the TGC. The usefulness of the TGC for the operation of the multi joint manipulator is verified in this research.