Effect of Viewpoint Change on Robot Hand Operation by Gesture-and Button-Based Methods

Abstract

Teaching pendants with multiple buttons are com-monly employed to control working robots; however, such devices are not easy to operate. As an alternative, gesture-based manipulation methods using the oper-ator’s upper limb movements have been studied as a way to operate the robots intuitively. Previous studies involving these methods have generally failed to con-sider the changing viewpoint of the operator relative to the robot, which may adversely affect operability. This study proposes a novel evaluation method and applies it in a series of experiments to compare the influence of viewpoint change on the operability of the gesture-and button-based operation methods. Experimental results indicate that the operability of the gesture-based method is superior to that of the button-based method for all viewpoint angles, due mainly to shorter non-operating times. An investigation of trial-and-error operation indicates that viewpoint change makes po-sitional operation with the button-based method more difficult but has a relatively minor influence on postu-ral operation.