Teleoperation of collaborative mobile robots with force feedback over internet

A teleoperation system has been developed that enables two human operators to safely control two collaborative mobile robots in unknown and dynamic environments from any two PCs connected to the Internet by installing developed client program on them and by using simple force feedback joysticks. On the graphical user interfaces, the operators receive images forwarded by the cameras mounted on the robots, and on the the joysticks they feel forces forwarded by developed obstacle prevention algorithm based on the dynamic window approach. The amount and direction of the forces they feel on their hands depend on the distance and direction to the robot’s closest obstacle, which can also be the collaborating robot. To overcome the instability caused by the unknown and varying time delay an event-based teleoperation method is employed to synchronize actions of each robot with commands from its operator. Through experimental investigation it is confirmed that developed teleoperation system enables the operators to successfully accomplish collaborative tasks in complex environments.