Self-Centering 3-DoF Feet Controller for Hands-Free Locomotion Control in Telepresence and Virtual Reality

TL;DR

This paper introduces a self-centering 3-DoF feet controller for hands-free locomotion in telepresence and VR, enabling intuitive control through tilting and rotation, demonstrated successfully in a robotics competition.

Contribution

A novel seated feet controller with self-centering joints for intuitive 3-DoF locomotion control in telepresence and VR environments, with publicly available models.

Findings

Successfully used in ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition

Enabled naive operators to traverse long distances and obstacles

Provides a reproducible design with 3D-printed parts

Abstract

We present a novel seated feet controller for handling 3-DoF aimed to control locomotion for telepresence robotics and virtual reality environments. Tilting the feet on two axes yields in forward, backward and sideways motion. In addition, a separate rotary joint allows for rotation around the vertical axis. Attached springs on all joints self-center the controller. The HTC Vive tracker is used to translate the trackers' orientation into locomotion commands. The proposed self-centering feet controller was used successfully for the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition, where a naive operator traversed the robot through a longer distance, surpassing obstacles while solving various interaction and manipulation tasks in between. We publicly provide the models of the mostly 3D-printed feet controller for reproduction.