Virtual Environment for Remote Control of UGVs Using a Haptic Device

This paper presents a virtual reality environment designed for military training personnel, focused on the remote control of unmanned land vehicles. The environment design has been made in the V-REP software, where a prototype of an explorer robot based on the kinematic model of a unicycle is presented. This vehicle is attached with proximity sensors to detect obstacles and thus be able to avoid them. Instead of operating with a conventional joystick that only allows the use of push buttons, a haptic device with force feedback is used with which the user experiences a more realistic immersive situation. In this context, the person can manipulate the unmanned vehicle direction and perceive when there is a collision with a nearby object as if it were on the site. To link the input device (Novint Falcon) with the virtual interface, the device mathematical modelling is carried out, and through MATLAB, the respective processing and the implementation of the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control algorithm for the displacement are made. The after-scenario questionnaire (ASQ) test is used, and a general average of 1.78/7 is obtained. Being a value close to 1, it shows the acceptance that the system has for the users.