Mobile robot controlling using environment map and force feedback

The essential surrounding environment information to control the remote mobile robot can be gained from devices such as camera, ultrasonic sensor, and infrared sensor. However, the image delay and noise sensitivity of sensors have an effect in achieving accurate surrounding environment data. This leads to unstable difficult control of the robot for the user. In order to reduce the difficulties in controlling the robot, this paper proposes a user friendly controlling environment to maximize the human performance. In addition, an efficient method to avoid obstacles while reducing the total run time is also proposed. By drawing an environment map, the user can easily and conveniently gain the surrounding environment information of the robot. The robot transmits collision warnings using voice to the user before collision and hence avoids the obstacles. This leads the user to control the robot without needing to consider obstacle collision. The robot also transmits force feedback corresponding to the rotation direction of the user. The user can recognize the rotation direction of the robot. This leads to the user not losing the navigation direction of the robot even if there is poor quality image detection.