Virtual reality and robotics application

These technical development initiatives focus on three areas, two of which are presented in this article:

• user interfacing with this virtual environment;

• the computer creation of this virtual world.

The third problem, which concerns the understanding of human sensorimotor activity in a virtual environment, calls on the field of cognitive science, and is not presented here.

With regard to user interfacing, difficulties and solutions are presented. We'll explain that the difficulties are not only technical for the interfaces, but also ergonomic and psychological, something that any engineer working in this field must not ignore, on pain of failure.

The basic concepts and software used to create a virtual environment are described, with particular emphasis on the "real time" constraint: the user must not be aware of any time lag between his bodily actions and the visual, acoustic or even tactile responses to them.

An overview of all virtual reality applications is presented. Industrial applications and uses of virtual reality began in the 1990s, after robotics applications. Some research in virtual reality and robotics is complementary. In both cases, the aim is to act, either via a robot in a real space without human intervention, or via a human in an artificial space. A closer link concerns teleoperation, the aim of which is to enable a human to act remotely via a robot in a real space: the operator is, from his point of view, immersed in an artificial space, his body not being in the robot's space. Research in both fields is presented. Certain developments in virtual reality can be applied to robotics, in particular those concerning collaboration between a human and a robot. Virtual reality techniques enable this collaboration to be studied virtually, from both a technical and psychological point of view, before it actually takes place.