| Summary: | The control of the video-camera plays an important factor in the overall efficiency of a teleoperator system. A computer-based video-camera control has been designed to compare and evaluate four different modes of control. A situation where an operator does not have a free hand for the control of the video-camera has been selected: such a situation can be found in subsea applications where the operator is required to steer a submarine and to manipulate a robot arm.
The four modes are:
• manual control mode : The operator's right hand is used to control both the robot arm and the camera system. The orientation of the camera (with close-up lens) is performed by pressing push buttons.
• automatic tracking mode : The camera (with close-up lens) automatically tracks the end effector of the slave arm, without direction from the operator.
• voice-operated mode : The orientation of the camera (with close-up lens) is accomplished by spoken commands.
• fixed-camera-position mode : A wide angle lens is used in this mode. The camera constantly remains in a straight ahead position and no controls are required.
A tracking task and a pick-and-drop task were performed during the experiments. Measures of speed and accuracy were taken and analyzed; subjective remarks were also gathered.
Results showed significant differences between the modes. Specifically, automatic tracking mode and voice-operated mode were found to offer the best ergonomic environment for the operator in terms of speed-accuracy tradeoff. === Applied Science, Faculty of === Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of === Graduate
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