Virtual reality headsets like the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift is suitable not only for video games, but also for use in industry and science. Scientists from mit have developed a system that uses the VR-helmet to remotely control an industrial robot. What is interesting in this system? It is interesting that the operator can be from the robot at a distance of thousands of kilometers and it is able to cope with their tasks, without leaving home.
The main task of remote control of robots is to perform operations remotely, such as when the robot is orbiting the Earth or even on Mars. However, there is this technology and other more mundane applications. For example, a talented surgeon can perform the surgery remotely while you are on another continent, and rescuers will be able to clean up the rubble after natural disasters, while not risking the lives of their people.
The system, developed at MIT, is based on the “model of the homunculus”. The idea is that in our head sits a little man, or “homunculus”, which controls all actions of our body. Just remember the movie “Men in black”, where tiny alien operated the robot in a human growth. The man in the helmet of a virtual reality as if it gets in the control room, where he can control the robot remotely. In other words, the operator would gets inside the head of the robot.
A similar approach was chosen by chance. If scientists have implemented a simple survey in the first person, the operator could see me, and when he sees things from the cockpit of the robot control, the discomfort disappears. This approach will also allow to avoid discomfort from the delay between the movements of the operator and the robot’s actions, which may be thousands of miles away from him. The system has already passed a number of tests, which showed itself from the best side. Robots are equally well managed both professionals and ordinary people, far from such operations.
At MIT learned to control the robots using virtual reality
Sergey Grey