Shared Control of Robot Manipulators With Obstacle Avoidance: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach

Abstract

The word <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">teleoperation</i> (which, in general, means “working at a distance”) is typically used in robotics when a human operator commands a remote agent. A teleoperated robot is often employed to substitute human beings in conditions where the latter cannot operate. A possible reason is the need to be in contact with dangerous substances, and indeed, the first robot teleoperation system was designed in the 1940s for handling nuclear and chemical materials <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[1]</xref> . Other reasons can be the difficulty in bringing people on missions to explore deep waters or space <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref2" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[2]</xref> , <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref3" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[3]</xref> as well as the need to work with very high precision (for example) during a surgery <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref4" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[4]</xref> , <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref5" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[5]</xref> . In certain cases, the reference provided by the human operator is not directly passed to the robot but is instead used to generate an adaptive motion. This approach is known as <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">semiautonomous teleoperation</i> or <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">shared control</i> <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref6" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[6]</xref> , and its aim is to reduce the workload of the human operator during the performance of a difficult task that involves controlling a robotic system.