Cooperative control of a mobile robot between human operator and computer

This paper presents a method for human-computer cooperative control of a mobile robot, where the system supports some cooperative action between manual and automatic modes. The proposed system employs variable gains to adjust the degree of sensitivity between computer operations and the correcting intension of human operation. The degree of computer operation is adjusted by a human operators operation of joystick, so that the operator can shift from computer operation to human operation smoothly. The method, proven by some actual trials in a PWS mobile robot, realizes efficiencies in the operation of a mobile robot with simplicities of commands and flexibility of skilled human operator.