System provided with an assistance-controller for assisting an operator of the system, control-operation assisting device, control-operation assisting method, driving-operation assisting device, and driving-operation assisting method

A control-operation assisting device that assists control operation of an operator on a manipulator for control of a controlled object, comprising:

• a controlled-object-state detection unit that detects information about the state of the controlled object;
• a manipulator-state detection unit that detects information about the state of manipulator;
• an environment-state detection unit that detects information about the state of control operation environment on the periphery of the controlled object;
• an ideal-interaction generating unit that generates the ideal interaction dynamics between the controlled object and the environment from the information about the state of the controlled object detected by the controlled-object-state detection unit and the environmental state detected by the environment-state detection unit;
• an ideal-manipulator-impedance generation unit that generates an ideal impedance for the manipulator from the ideal interaction dynamics between controlled object and the environment generated by the ideal-interaction generating unit;
• a manipulator-impedance-controller assistance system that controls the impedance of the manipulator based on the ideal manipulator impedance generated by the ideal-manipulator-impedance generation unit to produce the desired interaction dynamics between the controlled object and the environment;
• an ideal-manipulator-control-signal generating unit that generates an ideal-manipulator-control-signal from the ideal interaction dynamics between controlled object and the environment generated by the ideal-interaction generating unit;
• a manipulator-control-signal-difference calculating unit that calculates the difference between the ideal-manipulator-control-signal generated by the ideal-manipulator-control-signal generating unit and the state of the manipulator detected by the manipulator-state detection unit;
• an operation-precision estimation unit that estimates a precision required for the control operation of the controlled object from the ideal interaction dynamics between the controlled object and the environment generated by the ideal-interaction generating unit;
• a control-difference-impedance generating unit that generates a control difference impedance from the required precision estimated by the operation-precision estimation unit;
• an actuator-torque-controller-assistance system that controls the additional torque produced by an actuator based on the magnitude of the difference calculated by the manipulator-control-signal-difference calculating unit and the control difference impedance calculated by the control-difference-impedance generating unit to assist the control-operation of the operator on the manipulator to achieve the required operation precision.

A control-operation assisting method for assisting the control operation of an operator for control of a controlled object, comprising:

• generating an ideal control path of the controlled object from information about the control operation state of the operator and information about the control operation environment on the periphery of the controlled object;
• calculating, as an ideal control signal, a control profile of an operation system for the controlled object to operate along the generated ideal control path;
• calculating the difference between the calculated ideal control signal and the information about the control operation state;
• controlling the operation system based on the magnitude of the calculated difference to assist the operation of the operator for the operation system;
• and
• estimating the accuracy required for the control operation of the controlled object, from the information about the control operation state and/or the information about the control operation environment, wherein
• at assisting the operation of the operator, the assistance level of the operation system is increased as the estimated accuracy becomes higher.

A driving-operation assisting device that assists a vehicle operation of an operator for an operation target object, comprising:

• a vehicle-operation-state detecting unit that detects information about a vehicle operation state of the operator;
• an environment-state detecting unit that detects information about a vehicle operation environment on a periphery of the operation target object;
• an ideal-control-path generating unit that generates an ideal control path of the operation target object from the information about the vehicle operation state detected by the vehicle-operation-state detecting unit and the information about the vehicle operation environment detected by the environment-state detecting unit;
• an ideal-control-signal calculating unit that calculates, as an ideal control signal, a control history of an operation system for the operation target object to operate along the ideal control path generated by the ideal-control-path generating unit;
• a difference calculating unit that calculates a difference between the ideal control signal calculated by the ideal-control-signal calculating unit and the information about the vehicle operation state detected by the vehicle-operation-state detecting unit;
• an operation-system assistance controller that controls the operation system based on a magnitude of the difference calculated by the difference calculating unit to execute control for assisting an operation of the operator for the operation system;
• and
• an operation-precision estimating unit that estimates an accuracy required for the vehicle operation of the operation target object, from the information about the vehicle operation state detected by the vehicle-operation-state detecting unit and/or the information about the vehicle operation environment detected by the environment-state detecting unit, wherein
• the operation-system assistance controller increases a control level of the operation system as the accuracy estimated by the operation-precision estimating unit is higher.

A driving-operation assisting method for assisting a vehicle operation of an operator for an operation target object, comprising:

• generating an ideal control path of the operation target object from information about a vehicle operation state of the operator and information about a vehicle operation environment on a periphery of the operation target object;
• calculating, as an ideal control signal, a control history of an operation system for the operation target object to operate along the generated ideal control path;
• calculating a difference between the calculated ideal control signal and the information about the vehicle operation state;
• controlling the operation system based on a magnitude of the calculated difference to assist an operation of the operator for the operation system;
• and
• estimating an accuracy required for the vehicle operation of the operation target object, from the information about the vehicle operation state and/or the information about the vehicle operation environment, wherein
• at assisting the operation of the operator, a control level of the operation system is increased as the estimated accuracy becomes higher.