Built to Order: A Virtual Reality Interface for Assigning High-Level Assembly Goals to Remote Robots

Many real-world factory tasks require human expertise and involvement for robot control. However, traditional robot operation requires that users undergo extensive and time-consuming robot-specific training to understand the specific constraints of each robot. We describe a user interface that supports a user in assigning and monitoring remote assembly tasks in Virtual Reality (VR) through high-level goal-based instructions rather than low-level direct control. Our user interface is part of a testbed in which a motion-planning algorithm determines, verifies, and executes robot-specific trajectories in simulation.