Collaborative Camera Viewpoint Control for Telepresence
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current remotely controlled vehicles, such as drones and land rovers, typically offer one-to-one operator control or passive telepresence, lacking collaborative control mechanisms that allow multiple users to interactively control camera viewpoints and vehicle travel collectively.
Innovation Solution
A system with multiple cameras on a vehicle captures video from different viewpoints, allowing users with various viewing devices to select and control camera movements and vehicle travel instructions through a consensus-based trajectory planner, which generates instructions based on user inputs from controller devices, enabling collaborative control via voting or weighted policies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If one-to-one operator control is used for remotely controlled vehicles, then control simplicity is maintained, but user interaction capability and collaborative control are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The control system is segmented into multiple independent controller devices, each capable of receiving control inputs from different users. The trajectory planner processes inputs from multiple controllers separately and combines them through voting mechanisms, allowing collaborative control while maintaining individual controller simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple control inputs from different users are merged through a consensus-based trajectory planner that uses voting systems. The trajectory planner combines control commands from multiple controllers to generate a unified trajectory, enabling collaborative control while preserving the simplicity of individual controller interfaces.
2Device complexity
If passive telepresence is provided where users only watch video, then system complexity is reduced, but interactive control capability is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The controller devices are designed with multi-functionality, serving both as viewing devices for passive telepresence and as control interfaces for active interaction. The same device can switch between displaying video feeds and receiving control inputs, eliminating the need for separate passive viewing equipment while maintaining low system complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple cameras capture video from different viewpoints, then viewpoint selection flexibility is improved, but data transmission volume and processing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system transmits video data from multiple cameras simultaneously, providing more data than immediately needed. The viewpoint selection mechanism then selects only the necessary portion of this data for display, allowing flexible viewpoint switching while managing data transmission through selective processing of the available multi-camera feeds.
Data Source
AI summary
In embodiments of collaborative camera viewpoint control for interactive telepresence, a system includes a vehicle that travels based on received travel instructions, and the vehicle includes a camera system of multiple cameras that each capture video of an environment in which the vehicle travels from different viewpoints. Viewing devices receive the video of the environment from the different viewpoints, where the video of the environment from a selected one of the viewpoints is displayable to users of the viewing devices. Controller devices that are associated with the viewing devices can each receive a user input as a proposed travel instruction for the vehicle based on the selected viewpoint of the video that is displayed on the viewing devices. A trajectory planner receives the proposed travel instructions initiated via the controller devices, and generates a consensus travel instruction for the vehicle based on the proposed travel instructions.