A Method Targeting Repair in Space: Tele-operating a Collaborative Robot with Virtual Reality

Abstract

This research will contribute to NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space strategic enterprise. The goal of the research is to develop a technology to teleoperate a collaborative robot to conduct maintenance or repair (MR) jobs by itself or collaborate with a human in space. Thus it will be possible to repair a device through teleoperating a robot by human from earth with a relatively cheap and intuitive solution. We proposed and developed ReMoBot, a system that controls ABB Yumi collaborative robot through a virtue reality (VR) device, HTC Vive. A user can hold the Vive controllers to operate the two arms of Yumi to finish simple tasks such as drawing on paper. The system was tested in simulation of RoboStudio and on the real Yumi robot. Input motion data from Vive controllers and output motion data from Yumi was collected and analyzed to prove the effectiveness of the system.