Forbidden region virtual fixtures from streaming point clouds

Abstract

AbstractForbidden region virtual fixtures protect objects from unwanted contact with a robot. In this paper, we propose a method for creating forbidden region haptic virtual fixtures for teleoperation from streaming point clouds obtained by an RGB-D camera. Upon violating the protected area, the operator receives force feedback that opposes motion inside the forbidden region. Three architectures for creating virtual fixtures are presented and their advantages and disadvantages are described. The proposed methods have the ability to implement constraints and can handle dynamic environments in real-time. The effectiveness of the methods is demonstrated in experiments with a surgical robot.Keywords: hapticsteleoperationpoint cloudsvirtual fixturesaugmented reality Notes1 In the teleoperation literature, the remote robot is sometimes referred to as the robot or slave robot. Throughout this paper the term robot refers to the remote robot unless otherwise specified.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) [grant number 093093] and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01691864.2014.962613