IROS Conference 2025 Conference Paper
A Hybrid Mapping Method: Balancing Efficiency and Intuitiveness in Lateral Teleoperation
- Yuwei Xie
- Ruize Wang
- Jiming Chen
- Gaofeng Li
Mobile manipulators integrate the locomotion flexibility of quadruped robots with the operational capabilities of robotic manipulators. This integrated system is particularly effective for teleoperating explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) tasks in hazardous environments, enabling the safe handling of explosive devices. However, when the quadruped operates in narrow corridors or cluttered spaces, its ability to reposition is limited. This limitation, combined with targets located laterally relative to the robot, poses critical challenges for achieving rapid and intuitive teleoperation of the manipulator. Existing manipulator mapping methods either fail to support lateral teleoperation or lack proper coordinate transformations, leading to mismatches between the intended and actual movement directions of the leader and follower devices. This reduces operational intuitiveness and increases the cognitive load on human operators. To overcome these issues, we propose a hybrid mapping method that combines joint-space velocity control with Cartesian-space control. This method leverages joint-space velocity commands for rapid manipulator reorientation, while employing Cartesian-space commands to achieve precise end-effector teleoperation. Furthermore, we introduce a virtual base coordinate frame that adaptively adjusts in response to the manipulator’s reorientation. This adaptive compensation ensures that the visual feedback from the camera mounted on the end-effector remains consistent and intuitive. The proposed method was validated through experiments on a quadruped robot equipped with a manipulator in an EOD scenario. Results demonstrated significant improvements, including 100% success rate, 43. 9% task duration reduction, and 31. 7% NASA-TLX score decrease, indicating decreased cognitive load and enhanced task efficiency compared to baseline methods.