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In this paper, we introduce a novel interface that allows novice users to effectively and intuitively tele-operate robot manipulators. The premise of our method is that an interface that allows its user to direct a robot arm using the natural 6-DOF space of his/her hand would afford effective direct control of the robot; however, a direct mapping between the user's hand and the robot's end effector is impractical because the robot has different kinematic and speed capabilities than the human arm. Our key technical idea that by relaxing the constraint of the direct mapping between hand position and orientation and end effector configuration, a system can provide the user with the feel of direct control, while still achieving the practical requirements for telemanipulation, such as motion smoothness and singularity avoidance. We present methods for implementing a motion retargeting solution that achieves this relaxed control using constrained optimization and describe a system that utilizes it to provide real-time control of a robot arm. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in a user study that shows novice users can complete a range of tasks more efficiently and enjoyably using our relaxed-mimicry based interface compared to standard interfaces.
Rakita et al. (Wed,) studied this question.