Vision-based predictive assist control on master-slave systems

In this paper, we propose a method for improving the maneuverability of master-slave systems. We aim at reproducing human skillfulness and dynamic performance in master-slave robots by using assist control for human operators. In this paper, we tackle a reaching task performed by a master-slave robot and propose an operation assist algorithm based on visual feedback control. The algorithm consists of visual object recognition for a slave robot, prediction of the operator's motion by a particle filter, estimation of the operator's intention, and operation assistance of the reaching motion. We verified the validity of the proposed system in experiments.