Human-in-the-loop machine control loop
First Claim
1. A human-in-the-loop control loop for a machine having a plurality of joints and an operative part, said plurality of joints adapted for moving said operative part, comprising:
- (a) a hand controller having at least one degree of freedom so as to be deflectable in order to provide hand controller position signals for moving said operative part, said hand controller, in each degree of freedom, controlling motion of said operative part along one path;
(b) position mapping means to map each of said hand controller position signals to an operative part position command signal indicative of a position for said operative part along each of said at least one path;
(c) velocity mapping means to map each of said hand controller position signals to an operative part velocity command signal indicative of a velocity for said operative part along each of said at least one path;
(d) selector means to selectively activate said position mapping means and deactivate said velocity mapping means or activate said velocity mapping means and deactivate said position mapping means; and
(e) resolving means responsive to said selector means for resolving operative part position command signals to joint command signals and operative part velocity command signals to joint command signals for controlling the movement of each of said joints.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a human-in-the-loop robotic control loop, the constrained forces and moments at the gripper (also called hand or end effector) of the manipulator are measured by a force-mement sensor. The resulting force and moment signals are scaled and fed as input voltages to motors in a hand controller to provide torques which oppose deflection of the hand controller. Thus, the operator feels the opposing torques which are proportional to the magnitude of the constrained forces and moments. The force feedback loop may be opened to selectively provide a passive control loop. In either the active or passive mode, the hand controller position signals may be selectively mapped to either gripper position signals or gripper velocity signals in order to control movement of the gripper in the desired manner.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A human-in-the-loop control loop for a machine having a plurality of joints and an operative part, said plurality of joints adapted for moving said operative part, comprising:
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(a) a hand controller having at least one degree of freedom so as to be deflectable in order to provide hand controller position signals for moving said operative part, said hand controller, in each degree of freedom, controlling motion of said operative part along one path; (b) position mapping means to map each of said hand controller position signals to an operative part position command signal indicative of a position for said operative part along each of said at least one path; (c) velocity mapping means to map each of said hand controller position signals to an operative part velocity command signal indicative of a velocity for said operative part along each of said at least one path; (d) selector means to selectively activate said position mapping means and deactivate said velocity mapping means or activate said velocity mapping means and deactivate said position mapping means; and (e) resolving means responsive to said selector means for resolving operative part position command signals to joint command signals and operative part velocity command signals to joint command signals for controlling the movement of each of said joints. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A human-in-the-loop control loop for a machine having a plurality of joints and an operative part, said plurality of joints adapted for moving said operative part, comprising:
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(a) a hard controller having at least one degree of freedom so as to be deflectable in order to provide hand controller position signals for moving said operative part, said hand controller, in each degree of freedom, controlling motion of said operative part along one path; (b) sensing means responsive to a condition existing at said operative part for providing condition signals indicative of the intensity of said condition at said operative part in a direction tangent to each said path; (c) a condition feedback loop means comprising torque generator control signal production means for responding to said condition signals in order to produce torque generator control signals and torque generator means for receiving a function of said torque generator control signals in order to generate torques to oppose deflection of said hand controller; (d) selector means to selectively close said condition feedback loop means; (e) position mapping means to map each of said hand controller position signals to an operative part position command signal indicative of a position for said operative part along each of said at least one path; (f) velocity mapping means to map each of said hand controller position signals to an operative part velocity command signal indicative of a velocity for said operative part along each of said at least one path; (d) selector means to selectively activate said position mapping means and deactivate said velocity mapping means or activate said velocity mapping means and deactivate said position mapping means; and (e) resolving means responsive to said selector means for resolving operative part position command signals to joint command signals and operative part velocity command signals to joint command signals for controlling the movement of each of said joint, whereby, when said condition feedback loop means is closed, the generated torque which opposes deflection of said hand controller in each degree of freedom of said hand controller is related to the intensity of said condition tangent to each said path. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A human-in-the-loop control loop for a robot arm terminating in a gripper and having a plurality of joints above said gripper, comprising:
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(a) a hand controller having three degrees of freedom so as to be deflectable in order to provide hand controller position signals for moving said gripper, each degree of freedom of said hand controller allowing said hand controller to control motion of said gripper in one spatial dimension; (b) position mapping means to map each of said hand controller position signals to a gripper position command signal indicative of a position for said gripper in the three spatial dimensions; (c) velocity mapping means to map each of said hand controller position signals to a gripper velocity command signal indicative of a velocity for said gripper in the three spatial dimensions; (d) selector means to selectively activate said position mapping means and deactivate said velocity mapping means or activate said velocity mapping means and deactivate said position mapping means; (e) resolving means responsive to said selector means for resolving gripper position command signals to joint command signals and gripper velocity command signals to joint command signals for controlling the movement of each of said joints; whereby, when said position mapping means is activated, said joints are moved in such a way as to move said gripper to the position indicated by said hand controller and when said velocity mapping means is activated, said joints are moved in such a way as to move said gripper in the velocity indicated by said hand controller.
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Specification