iRoCo: Intuitive Robot Control From Anywhere Using a Smartwatch

Abstract

This paper introduces iRoCo (intuitive Robot Control) – a framework for ubiquitous human-robot collaboration using a single smartwatch and smartphone. By integrating probabilistic differentiable filters, iRoCo optimizes a combination of precise robot control and unrestricted user movement from ubiquitous devices. We demonstrate and evaluate the effectiveness of iRoCo in practical teleoperation and drone piloting applications. Comparative analysis shows no significant difference between task performance with iRoCo and gold-standard control systems in teleoperation tasks. Additionally, iRoCo users complete drone piloting tasks 32% faster than with a traditional remote control and report less frustration in a subjective load index questionnaire. Our findings strongly suggest that iRoCo is a promising new approach for intuitive robot control through smartwatches and smart-phones from anywhere, at any time. The code is available at www.github.com/wearable-motion-capture