Laser Assisted Combined Teleoperation and Autonomous Control

In this paper we demonstrate combined human teleoperation and autonomous control of a remote manipulator in an unstructured environment to enable people with limited upper body strength to carry out a remote task. Range data from a laser sensor mounted on the end-effector of a remote manipulator is used by the user to select via-points in teleoperation. This information enables autonomous execution of trajectories. The human user is primarily involved in higher level decision making; the user performs minimal teleoperation by selecting critical points using a laser. In the event the sensor or human detects an unexpected obstacle during autonomous trajectory execution, the controller terminates the trajectory so that the human can teleoperate the end-effector safely around the obstacle. Once the obstacle has been averted, the system resumes the control and guides the manipulator autonomously to the target. Tests on healthy human subjects on a pick-and-place task involving multiple objects showed that this combined teleoperation and autonomous methodology using minimal sensory data made it physically and cognitively easier for the user to execute the task