Dexterous telemanipulator system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9527207-B2
Application number	US-201214005075-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 21, 2012
Priority date	Mar 23, 2011
Publication date	Dec 27, 2016
Grant date	Dec 27, 2016

Abstract

A robotic manipulator has a body and a stereoscopic video system movably coupled to the body. The stereoscopic vision system produces a stereoscopic video of an environment of the robotic manipulator. The robotic manipulator also includes two independently remotely controlled arms coupled to opposite sides of the body. Each arm moves in proprioceptive alignment with the stereoscopic video produced by the stereoscopic video system in response to commands received from a remote control station based on movements performed by an operator at the remote control station.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A robotic manipulator comprising:
a remotely controlled mobile host platform;
a body attached to the remotely controlled mobile host platform;
a stereoscopic video system movably coupled to the body, the stereoscopic vision system producing a stereoscopic video of an environment of the robotic manipulator; and
two independently remotely controlled arms coupled to opposite sides of the body, each arm moving in a direction determined by proprioceptive alignment with a view direction of the stereoscopic video produced by the stereoscopic vision system in response to commands received from a remote control station based on movements performed by an operator at the remote control station;
wherein each arm comprises an upper arm rotatably coupled to one side of the body for rotational movement about first and second axes, an elbow rotatably joined to the upper arm for rotational movement about a third axis, the three axes of rotation intersecting at a point within the upper arm;
and wherein each arm comprises a forearm rotatably joined to the elbow of that arm for rotational movement about an elbow joint, the forearm having a center of mass at the elbow joint to balance the forearm at the elbow joint.

2. The robotic manipulator of claim 1 , wherein the body further comprises an accelerometer for detecting a direction of gravity, and the robotic manipulator further comprises a computational subsystem that balances the arms of the robotic manipulator in response to the detected direction of gravity and position of the arms.

3. The robotic manipulator of claim 1 , wherein the body has rails and the video system has an undercarriage with rollers that ride on the rails of the body, and the robotic manipulator further comprises a chain drive coupling the video system to the body and a servo that moves the video system along the chain drive to tilt the video system up and down.

4. The robotic manipulator of claim 1 , wherein each forearm comprises a wrist adapted to hold an instrument.

5. The robotic manipulator of claim 4 , wherein each upper arm comprises a first servo that rotates the upper arm about one of the first and second axes and a second servo that rotates the upper arm about the other of the first and second axes, the servos being disposed within the upper arm at locations where the servos provide a counterbalance to a remainder of the arm.

6. The robotic manipulator of claim 1 , wherein each arm comprises a rotatable wrist with a tool, the wrist having a three-axis accelerometer that detects and reports vibrations in three dimensions.

7. The robotic manipulator of claim 6 , wherein the wrist further comprises means for detecting a degree of grip opening by the tool.

8. A system comprising:
a remotely controlled mobile host platform; and
a robotic manipulator attached to the remotely controlled mobile host platform, the robotic manipulator comprising:
a servo actuator subsystem including two independently remotely controlled arms coupled to opposite sides of a body;
each arm of the robotic manipulator comprising an upper arm rotatably coupled to one side of the body for rotational movement about first and second axes, an elbow rotatably joined to the upper arm for rotational movement about a third axis, the three axes of rotation substantially intersecting at a joint within the upper arm; and
each arm comprising a forearm rotatably joined to the elbow of that arm for rotational movement about an elbow joint, the forearm having a center of mass at the elbow joint to balance the forearm at the elbow joint;

a video-capture subsystem that produces a stereoscopic video of a local environment of the robotic manipulator; and
a computational host subsystem transmitting movement commands to the servo actuator subsystem that cause the servo actuator subsystem to move each arm in a direction determined by proprioceptive alignment with a view direction of the stereoscopic video produced by the video-capture subsystem.

9. The system of claim 8 , further comprising a remote control station having haptic-interface devices, the remote control station sending movement commands to the computational host subsystem of the robotic manipulator over a network in response to manipulation of the haptic-interface devices by an operator.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the computational host subsystem transmits feedback signals received from the servo actuator subsystem and video data received from the video-capture subsystem to the remote control station.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein at least some of the feedback signals correspond to vibrations detected in three dimensions by wrists of the arms.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein at least some of the feedback signals correspond to a sense of grip effort being exerted by a tool held by a wrist of one of the arms.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the computational host subsystem balances the arms of the robotic manipulator in response to a detected direction of gravity and position of the arms.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the robotic manipulator further comprises a power distribution subsystem that distributes power acquired from the remotely controlled mobile host platform to the other subsystems of the robotic manipulator.

15. The system of claim 8 , wherein the remotely controlled mobile host platform has a manipulator arm with a gripper at a distal end of the manipulator arm, and wherein the robotic manipulator is in the gripper at the distal end of said manipulator arm.

16. The system of claim 8 , wherein each upper arm comprises a first servo that rotates the upper arm about one of the first and second axes and a second servo that rotates the upper arm about the other of the first and second axes, the servos being disposed within the upper arm at locations where the servos provide a counterbalance to a remainder of the arm.

17. The system of claim 8 , wherein each forearm comprises a wrist adapted to hold a tool.

18. The robotic manipulator of claim 1 , wherein the remotely controlled mobile host platform is a remotely controlled vehicle.

19. The system of claim 8 , wherein the remotely controlled mobile host platform is a remotely controlled vehicle.

Assignees

• Low Thomas P
• Garcia Pablo E
• Knoth Bruce H
• Cowan Cregg
• Chavez Bryan
• Stanford Res Inst Int

Inventors

• Low Thomas P
• Garcia Pablo E
• Knoth Bruce H
• Cowan Cregg
• Chavez Bryan

Classifications

• B25J19/023

  including video camera means · CPC title

• B25J9/0087 Primary

  Dual arms (double SCARA arms B25J9/043) · CPC title

• B25J9/161

  Hardware, e.g. neural networks, fuzzy logic, interfaces, processor · CPC title

• B25J9/1689

  Teleoperation · CPC title

• B25J13/025

  comprising haptic means · CPC title