Integrated user interface for teleoperated grasping & manipulation with tactile feedback

• Main Author: Dai, Yan
• Other Authors: Seet Gim Lee, Gerald
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60292
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Nowadays robots are used widely in different industries. And remote controls are the main applications used to control the robots. For most of the remote control system, it adopts the master-slave system, which allows users to operate the master system to control the slave system. As a result, the users can get the work done from a certain distance from the place where the actual work is conducted. However there is a drawback for most of the master-slave system used currently, which is the lack of tactile feedback. In the situation like the Minimally Invasive Surgery, the tactile feedback is essential because without enough force, the slave system could not grip object firmly. While if the force is too large, it would damage the tissues. To provide the tactile feedback, the piezo-resistive sensors are used in this project. To detect the occurrence of the slip, the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) value is captured and studied. To assist the main project, the author builds up a Graphic User Interface (GUI) to control the motion of the motors and display the real time data obtained by the sensors. This GUI builds the connection between the National Instrument Labview and GalilTools, which enable users to control the motors by Labview instead of standard Galil commands. While controlling the motors, the real time data could be captured and displayed in the front panel of the GUI, which allows user to react according to the real time situation. There are two codes completed in this project. One is used to help conduct the experiment. In this code, it only responds to the user input and each motion of the motors is controlled by the users. This code is called the open loop control. The other code is used to prevent the occurrence of the slip. When it detects slip, it automatically increases the normal force to prevent the slip. This code is called the close loop control since it reacts automatically according to the feedback signals. The results of the experiment show that the open loop control works well when being tested on the physical set up. It can control the motion of the motors successfully according to the instructions from users. And the data could be captured, plotted and stored well for future study. While for the close loop control, the logic and algorithm is correct and it can execute the close loop to stop motor A automatically. But due to the complex property of the DWT value, it could not increase the normal force to prevent the slip effectively. For the safety concern for the physical set up in the laboratory, the close loop is not tested on the physical set up. Some of the recommendations have been made for the future work to make a better GUI