Effect of Viewpoint Change on Robot Hand Operation by Gesture- and Button-Based Methods

Teaching pendants with multiple buttons are commonly employed to control working robots; however, such devices are not easy to operate. As an alternative, gesture-based manipulation methods using the operator’s upper limb movements have been studied as a way to operate the robots intuitively. Previous studies involving these methods have generally failed to consider the changing viewpoint of the operator relative to the robot, which may adversely affect operability. This study proposes a novel evaluation method and applies it in a series of experiments to compare the influence of viewpoint change on the operability of the gesture- and button-based operation methods. Experimental results indicate that the operability of the gesture-based method is superior to that of the button-based method for all viewpoint angles, due mainly to shorter non-operating times. An investigation of trial-and-error operation indicates that viewpoint change makes positional operation with the button-based method more difficult but has a relatively minor influence on postural operation.