Simultaneous operation of dual arm and body of mobile robots

Most robots with manipulators used in fieldwork use operating devices that are large and complicated, requiring a large system such as a flight cockpit and several operators to move the arms/arm and body of the robots separately. These robots may be more efficiently manipulated using small-scale operating devices, able to be manipulated by a single operator. We have developed an operating device composed of joysticks mounted onto link mechanisms, to manipulate the movement of the robot body. In addition, this device incorporates multi-DOF manipulator-like link structures, which can be intuitively operated by the operator. We also evaluated the operability of this device, as determined by the operator´s mental workload and the physical configuration of the operator´s hand.