We discuss the issues involved in controlling self service machines via gestures composed of both static symbols and dynamic motions. Each gesture is modeled from either static model information or a linear-in-parameters dynamic system. Recognition occurs in a real-time environment using a small amount of processing time and memory. We will examine which gestures are appropriate, how the gestures can be recognized, and which commands the gestures should control.

This paper presents a general method to compute configuration space (c-space) obstacle surfaces (c-surfaces) in planar quaternion space. We extend the method to find the projection of a given point in c-space onto the c-surface We parameterize the general c-surface using a rotation angle and the vector of translation parameters of the individual contacts. We first compute the domain of the rotation parameter. Then, we can setup the translation parameters in a linear equation. The solution of this equation using singular value decomposition gives us the exact parameters of translation. We can extend this quasi-linear method to project a point in c-space onto the c-surface. We implement our theory on the assembly plan from observation (APO) system. The APO observes discrete instants of an assembly task and reconstructs the compliant motion plan employed in the task. We compute the contacts at each observed instant and the corresponding c-surface. We then interpolate the path on each c-surface to obtain segments of the path. The complete motion plan will be the concatenation of the connected path segments.

This paper presents a general method to compute configuration space (c-space) obstacle surfaces (c-surfaces) in dual quaternion space and for projecting points onto them. We parameterize the c-surface using the rotation angles of the object and the vector of translation parameters of the individual contacts. Once we compute the domain of the rotation parameters, we can setup the translation parameters in a linear equation. The singular value decomposition of this equation gives us with the exact parameters of translation. We extend the theory to find the projection of a point in c-space onto the c-surface. We implement our theory on the assembly plan from observation (APO) system. The APO observes discrete instants of an assembly task and reconstructs the compliant motion plan employed in the task. We compute the contacts at each observed instant and the corresponding c-surface. We then interpolate the path on each c-surface to obtain segments of the path. The complete motion plan will be the concatenation of the connected path segments.

This paper describes a system for obtaining the motion plan for a planar assembly task, given a sequence of observations of a human performing the task. The motion plan in configuration space is a series of connected path segments lying outside and on the configuration space obstacle. We use the observed configurations of the assembled objects to selectively compute the features of the c-space obstacle on which the path lies. We project the observed configurations onto these features and reconstruct the path segments. The connected path segments form the model of the observed task and can be used to program a robot to repeat the task. We demonstrate the system using the planar peg in hole task.

The assembly plan from observation (APO) system observes a human operator perform an assembly task, analyzes the observations, models the task and generates the programs for the robot to perform the same task. A major component of the APO system is the task recognition module, which models the observed task. The task model in the APO context is defined as a sequence of assembly states of the part being assembled and the actions which cause the transition between the states. The state of the assembled part is based on its freedom, which can be computed from the geometry of the contacts between the part and its environment. This freedom can be represented as a polyhedral convex cone (PCC) in screw space. We show that any contact configuration can be classed into a finite number of contact states. These contact states correspond to typologically distinct intersections of the PCC with a linear subspace T in screw space. The models of any observed task can be represented as a path in a transition graph obtained from these contact states. We illustrate the theory by implementing the APO system for polygonal objects assembled in a plane using rotation and translation.

The assembly plan from observation (APO) system observes a human operator perform an assembly task, analyzes the observations, models the task, and generates the programs for the robot to perform the same task. The task model of the observed task is defined as a sequence of contact states of the part being assembled and the motion which causes the transition between the states. The freedom of the assembled part can be represented as a polyhedral convex cone (PCC) in screw space, which can belong to one of a finite number of distinct contact states. These contact states correspond to topologically distinct intersections of PCCs with a linear subspace T in screw space. Any observed assembly task can be represented as a finite sequence of critical contact states and the motion between them. The abstract task model is used to program the robot to execute the observed assembly task. We illustrate the application of the theory by implementing the APO system for assemblies in a plane.