Applications of augmented reality for human-robot communication

The director/agent (D/A) metaphor of telerobotic interaction is discussed as a potential means for achieving human-robot synergy. In order for the human operator to communicate spatial information to the robot during D/A operations, the medium of augmented reality through overlaid virtual stereographics is proposed, leading to what is referred to as virtual control. An overview is given of the ARGOS (Augmented Reality through Graphic Overlays on Stereovideo) system. In particular, the uses of overlaid virtual pointers for enhancing absolute depth judgement tasks, virtual tape measures for real-world quantification, virtual tethers for perceptual enhancement in manual teleoperation, virtual landmarks for enhancing depth scaling, and virtual object overlays for on-object edge enhancement and display superposition are all presented and discussed.