A Method for Superimposing Virtual Environment and Real Environment.

Abstract

Tele-existence is an advanced type of teleoperation system that enables a human operator to perform remote manipulation tasks dexterously with the feeling that he or she exists in the remote anthropomorphic robot in the remote environment. In order to extend the function of a human, an extended tele-existence system with virtual reality technology was proposed. For example, when visual information cannot be used because of smoke due to fire, then a human operator still can see the virtual environment of the scene and can control the robot. The model of the environment can be constructed from the design data of the environment. Usually, there are errors in the model of the environment. Large errors in parameters may fail operations using the virtual environment. In order to compensate for the errors, the calibration technique using model based image measurement is proposed for matching the real image and the virtual image. After the calibration, an experimental operation in the almost invisible environment was successfully conducted.