Teaching programming is well known as a common operation method of robotic arms. Today’s article introduces you to several novel, unique and creative manipulator operation methods. I hope these successful cases can inspire you and use these methods to implement more products.

Force feedback remote operation

TeleRobotics EXtender (TREX) is a stress feedback remote operation application. It is an innovative solution suitable for dangerous, difficult or other restricted environments, which can provide protection for workers and avoid them from any risks. Operators can use TREX to control remote UR e series robots through the Haption arm. The UR robot can truly reproduce the movement of the main arm in real time.

It is a master-slave solution consisting of a master arm (Haption), a slave arm (UR e-series) and an application (Haption). According to the user's choice, install the main arm near the UR e series robot or keep a certain distance from the UR e series robot. Through this application, users can remotely control the UR robot in real time without pre-programming. The use of the main arm with force feedback allows the operator to feel the power of the robot as well as the force exerted by the robot. A sense of strength is essential to reduce the risk of damaging the environment or the robot itself. The UR robot truly reproduces the movement of the main arm as if it is an extension of the operator's hand.

Haption teleoperation application program interface

The user can perform work comfortably through this system and maintain manual ability without being exposed to dangerous or restrictive environments. Thanks to the main arm, he can feel the power of the robot and the weight of the object being lifted, possible collisions, etc. A set of buttons allows it to change the intensity of the feeling and the speed of movement of the UR e series robot. With TREX, operators can apply their expertise and manual techniques through UR robots without any offline programming. The following practical operation demonstration video helps us understand TREX more intuitively.

Click the link to watch the video：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-pThkWBG_593Q74vfRkwXg

Glove remote operation

The teleoperation method based on IMU and EMG is low-cost, efficient and easy to operate. In 2017, the research group of Professor Sun Fuchun of Tsinghua University designed a wearable glove that integrates 18 IMUs, and developed a multi-modal fusion algorithm based on the extended Kalman filter to estimate the direction and position of human arms and hands. This novel remote control solution is steadily applied to the 11DOF robotic arm-hand system composed of SCHUNK arm and Barrett three-finger hand, and the 10DOF robotic arm-hand system composed of UR5 and Barrett three-finger hand, in which the operator’s fingers are used It is used for robotic remote control, and the palm of the arm is used for robotic remote control.

On their booth, Universal Robots showed us the remote operation case of using gloves to remotely enable UR robot + Shadow dexterous hand to achieve precise object picking and placing and issuing playing cards and other difficult actions. This demonstration attracted a lot of attention at the 2019 World Robotics Conference.

3D mouse assisted operation

The 3D mouse is a simple plug-in that can control the robot to move or rotate in any direction in real time. Simply put, when you move or tilt the 3D mouse, the robot will perform the same tilt or move action. Using the free drive button, UR users can easily position the robot manually. However, when the operator is not near the robot, the same action can be copied with a 3D mouse. For example, if the robot is in another room or is out of reach of the operator, a 3D mouse can come in handy. The 3D mouse can be used to teach the robot during programming or to control the robot in real time to perform tasks such as scanning, drawing, shooting video, picking and placing.

Real-time control of the robot based on the 3D mouse. The control robot is very accurate and easy to use, and can even perform complex operations, such as pouring water from a cup.

Click to watch the video：3D mouse controls the UR robot to pour water into the cup

Master-slave control

Someone who sees here may have to say that the above equipment and solutions are too expensive. As a beginner, how do you quickly get started using master-slave control or teleoperation manipulator solutions? The handheld robotic arm of Wuhan Jingtian Electric Co., Ltd. is an entry-level desktop-level robotic arm of 10,000 yuan, providing you with the most convenient and efficient master-slave control case. The code is all open source, and you can learn it and use it on your own platform. The case demonstration video is as follows

Click the link to watch the video：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-pThkWBG_593Q74vfRkwXg

In this example, if the user holds the master arm of the handheld robot arm and moves him, the slave arm of the handheld robot arm will move like the master arm. The recording mode allows you to repeat the previous movement autonomously by the slave arm after teaching the movement trajectory through the master arm.

  Wuhan Jingtian Electric is the preferred distributor of Universal Robots. We mainly focus on the Xuanwu series of mobile grasping robots, which are the indoor and outdoor mobile grasping solutions composed of Canada's Clearpath mobile chassis + UR robotic arms; Hundreds of rich and diverse UR+ application solutions. Interested friends can follow our public account, which is updated weekly. If you have any technical questions or product requirements, please leave a message in the comments section below.