Teams of heterogeneous robots with different dynamics or capabilities could perform a variety of tasks such as multipoint surveillance, cooperative transport and explorations in hazardous environments. In this study, we work with heterogeneous robots of semi-autonomous ground and aerial robots for contaminant localization. We developed a human interface system which linked every real robot to its virtual counterpart. A novel virtual interface has been integrated with Augmented Reality that can monitor the position and sensory information from video feed of ground and aerial robots in the 3D virtual environment, and improve user situational awareness. An operator can efficiently control the real multi-robots using the Drag-to-Move method on the virtual multi-robots. This enables an operator to control groups of heterogeneous robots in a collaborative way for allowing more contaminant sources to be pursued simultaneously. The advanced feature of the virtual interface system is guarded teleoperation. This can be used to prevent operators from accidently driving multiple robots into walls and other objects. Moreover, the feature of the image guidance and tracking is able to reduce operator workload.

Date Published: 7 May 2010
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 7692, Unmanned Systems Technology XII, 769208 (7 May 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.850166

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7692:
Unmanned Systems Technology XII
Grant R. Gerhart; Douglas W. Gage; Charles M. Shoemaker, Editor(s)