A Survey of Telesensation and Teleoperation Technology With Virtual Reality and Force Reflection Capabilities

A telesensation system implies the ultimate goal of teleoperation. Such a system provides the operator with the sensational feelings of the remote site as if he/she were working in the actual environment. Thus, the performance of the system is greatly improved. This paper mainly reviews some of the existing units of the three most important elements in a telesensation system. These units are force-reflecting manual controllers, virtual reality units, and an advanced operator interface. The feel of touch is provided by the force-reflecting manual controller, while the virtual reality unit gives the operator the 3-D view of the working environment. The telesensation system, also implemented with the advanced operator interface, allows the operator to easily control, model, plan, and simulate remote systems. These features have proven to be the most significant feedback of telesensation systems.