Haptic tele-operation of a mobile robot

Abstract Teleoperation systems have been developed in order to allow a human operator to perform complex tasks in remote environments. Mobile robots can be considered as a particular example of telemanipulation systems, since they can be operated remotely to perform particular tasks. As an example, the inspection of underwater structures and the removal of mines are performed by mobile platforms controlled by a remote operator, which generally takes advantage only of the visual feedback provided by vision systems. In this paper, the use of a haptic interface is proposed in order to increase the user's perception of the workspace of the mobile robot. In particular, a virtual interaction force is computed on the basis of obstacles surrounding the mobile vehicle in order to prevent dangerous contacts. The passivity of the overall system is preserved, so that stability of the virtual interaction is guaranteed.