Remote microscale teleoperation through virtual reality and haptic feedback

Aude Bolopion (1) , Christian Stolle (2) , Robert Tunnell (2) , Sinan Haliyo (3) , Stéphane Régnier (3) , Sergej Fatikow (2)

1 FEMTO-ST - Franche-Comté Électronique Mécanique, Thermique et Optique - Sciences et Technologies (UMR 6174)
2 University of Oldenburg
3 ISIR - Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique

This paper reports the remote handling of mi-croscale objects, between two sites approximately 630 km distant. To manipulate objects less than 10 µm, specific equipments such as AFM (Atomic Force Microscope) cantilevers integrated into a SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) are generally required. Enabling remote access to such a system would benefit any micro/nanoresearcher. However, vision feedback and sensor data of a micromanipulation system are generally limited, hence the implementation of a teleoperation scenario is not straightforward. Specific tools are proposed here for an intuitive manipulation in a wide range of applications. To ensure ease of manipulation, both a 3D virtual representation of the scene and haptic feedback are provided. Force sensor feedback is limited since only two measures are available. In order to extend this information, vision algorithms are developed to estimate the respective positions of the tool and objects, which are then used to calculate the haptic feedback. The stability of the overall scheme is very sensitive to time delays. This requirement is taken into account in vision algorithms and the communication module which transfers the data between the two remote sites. In addition, the proposed robotic control architecture is modular so that the platform can be used for a wide range of applications. First results are obtained on a teleoperation between Paris, France, and Oldenburg, Germany.

Domaines: Automatique / Robotique

Aude Bolopion, Christian Stolle, Robert Tunnell, Sinan Haliyo, Stéphane Régnier, et al.. Remote microscale teleoperation through virtual reality and haptic feedback. 2011 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2011), Sep 2011, San Francisco, United States. pp.894-900, ⟨10.1109/IROS.2011.6094453⟩. ⟨hal-02912235⟩