The Development of Human Machine Interface (HMI) Based Graphical User Interface (GUI) for Telecontrol System of a Ship Mounted Two-DoF Manipulator

The development of a telecontrol system for a ship-mounted two-DoF manipulator is greatly required since it must be controlled from the control room of a ship and subjected to random ocean waves. This paper addresses such a task by developing a human-machine interface (HMI) based graphical user interface (GUI). The features cover control and monitoring of the manipulator system as well as object tracking. The HMI is embedded in a console box via a personal computer (PC) and capable of accessing sensors and actuators through a microcontroller. Data processing and communication techniques are also proposed to avoid overlap or lag for real-time implementation. Experimental results show that the telecontrol system successfully monitors and control the manipulator system as well as track the objects using an image processing algorithm.