Contactless Surface Following via Teleoperated Manipulator Based on Point Cloud

Abstract

This study focused on security robots as a substitute for security guards. For patrol tasks, the operation of body scans using teleoperated manipulators equipped with metal detectors has been considered to determine whether individuals are carrying hazardous items. When a handheld metal detector is waved over a person to be inspected, it must follow the subject’s clothing from a certain distance. In this study, a method for acquiring an object’s shape in-situ and following its surface without contact is proposed. The resulting scheme captures the surface information of an object using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) immediately prior to operation. The distance between the hand and the object is then controlled using a point cloud and the operator’s control input. To confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method, subject experiments were conducted with three operators. As a result, the percentage of distance errors significantly increases within ±10 mm in the proposed method. The percentage of the distance error within ±10 mm in the experiment without control was 78.7%, and the percentage in the experiment with control was 99.8%. In addition, the time in which the proposed method completes the surface-following task is significantly decreased: The median time in the experiment without control was 63.1 s, while that in the experiment with control was 24.6 s. These results indicate that the distance can be easily maintained when an input device is pressed forward and swung left and right, reducing the operation time.