VFH+ based shared control for remotely operated mobile robots

TL;DR

This paper introduces a shared control system combining VFH+ obstacle avoidance with teleoperation commands to enhance safety and efficiency of remotely operated robots in hazardous environments, demonstrated through disaster response experiments.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel shared control approach integrating VFH+ with teleoperation for improved navigation in unstructured environments.

Findings

Enhanced safety and task completion speed in experiments

Effective obstacle avoidance in dynamic environments

Improved performance over pure teleoperation

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of safe and efficient navigation in remotely controlled robots operating in hazardous and unstructured environments; or conducting other remote robotic tasks. A shared control method is presented which blends the commands from a VFH+ obstacle avoidance navigation module with the teleoperation commands provided by an operator via a joypad. The presented approach offers several advantages such as flexibility allowing for a straightforward adaptation of the controller's behaviour and easy integration with variable autonomy systems; as well as the ability to cope with dynamic environments. The advantages of the presented controller are demonstrated by an experimental evaluation in a disaster response scenario. More specifically, presented evidence show a clear performance increase in terms of safety and task completion time compared to a pure teleoperation approach, as well as an ability to cope with previously unobserved obstacles.