Evaluation of video-camera controls for remote manipulation

• Main Author: Frenette, Réal
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2010
• Subjects: Robotics; Remote control
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/25093

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