KUKAloha: A General, Low-Cost, and Shared-Control based Teleoperation Framework for Construction Robot Arm

TL;DR

KUKAloha is a versatile, cost-effective teleoperation system for construction robots that combines shared human control with autonomous perception to enhance safety, efficiency, and usability in large-scale manipulation tasks.

Contribution

The paper introduces KUKAloha, a novel shared-control teleoperation framework that integrates leader-follower guidance with autonomous perception for construction robot arms.

Findings

Reduces operator workload during tasks.

Improves task completion efficiency.

Enhances safety and repeatability in construction manipulation.

Abstract

This paper presents KUKAloha, a general, low-cost, and shared-control teleoperation framework designed for construction robot arms. The proposed system employs a leader-follower paradigm in which a lightweight leading arm enables intuitive human guidance for coarse robot motion, while an autonomous perception module based on AprilTag detection performs precise alignment and grasp execution. By explicitly decoupling human control from fine manipulation, KUKAloha improves safety and repeatability when operating large-scale manipulators. We implement the framework on a KUKA robot arm and conduct a usability study with representative construction manipulation tasks. Experimental results demonstrate that KUKAloha reduces operator workload, improves task completion efficiency, and provides a practical solution for scalable demonstration collection and shared human-robot control in construction environments.