The paper introduces a new assistance algorithm and interface for robot teleoperation, allowing operators to explicitly communicate a manipulation goal. This is done by pointing the end-effector, with optimization and parallel collision checking enabling direct, interactive control over grasp and place pose candidates. In a user study, the explicit pointing interface was compared to an implicit inference-based assistance scheme. The results showed that operators preferred the explicit interface, which improved completion time, pick and place success rates, and NASA TLX scores. The researchers provide their code for further exploration and development.
Publication date: 6 Feb 2024
Project Page: https://github.com/NVlabs/fast-explicit-teleop
Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.02612
