Thomas F. Ewing

Lessons learned from a novel teleoperation testbed

Purpose – Sets out to discuss lessons learned from the creation and use of an over‐the‐internet teleoperation testbed.Design/methodology/approach – Seven lessons learned from the testbed are presented.Findings – This teleoperation interface improves task performance, as proved by a single demonstration.Originality/value – In helping to overcome time‐delay difficulties in the operation, leading to dramatically improved task performance, this study contributes significantly to the improvement of teleoperation by making better use of human skills.

Enhanced teleoperation for D&D

Remote systems are essential for reducing risk to human workers from hazardous radiation and difficult work environments, while improving productivity and reducing costs. The major drawback of currently available remote manipulator systems is that teleoperation is slow and imprecise. The presented work focuses on enhancing remote operation of tools for D&D tasks by introducing teleautonomy and telecollaboration. In teleautonomy, the robot performs a given task autonomously, while the human operator intervenes in the process as a supervisor. In telecollaboration, the human operator is passively constrained by a virtual fixture, but is responsible for the motion. This work, sponsored by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP), builds on a reactive, agent-based control architecture and robot control technology.

Semi-autonomous telerobotic manipulation: A viable approach for space structure deployment and maintenance

Future space explorations necessitate manipulation of space structures in support of extra vehicular activities or extraterrestrial resource exploitation. In these tasks robots are expected to assist or replace human crew to alleviate human risk and enhance task performance. However due to the vastly unstructured and unpredictable environmental conditions, automation of robotic task is virtually impossible and thus teleoperation is expected to be employed. However teleoperation is extremely slow and inefficient. To improve task efficiency of teleoperation, this work introduces semi‐autonomous telerobotic operation technology. Key technological innovations include implementation of reactive agent based robotic architecture and enhanced operator interface that renders virtual fixture.

Perceptual basis for reactive teleoperation

To improve task performance in partially structured environments, enhancements to teleoperation have been proposed by introducing autonomous behaviors. Such autonomy is implemented based on a reactive robotic architecture, where reactive motor agents that directly couple sensory inputs and motor actions become the building blocks. To this end, a perceptual basis for the motor agents is presented in this paper. The perceptual basis consists of perceptual agents that extract environmental information from a structured light vision system and provide action-oriented perception for the corresponding motor agents. Rather than performing general scene reconstruction, a perceptual agent directly provides the motion reference for the motor behavior. Various sensory mechanisms - sensor fission, fusion, and fashion - become basic building blocks of the perception process. Since perception is a process deeply intertwined with the motor actions, active perception may also incorporate motor behaviors as an integral perceptual process.

Remote Manipulation of D&D Exhibiting Tele-Autonomy and Tele-Collaboration

Teleoperation has found much application in todays society. While its benefits make it advantageous in many situations, teleoperation also introduces new challenges. In this paper, we present techniques to improve teleoperation performance by making better use of the humans inherent skills.

Structured light system for teleautonomous and telecollaborative manipulation

This paper addresses the implementation of sensory basis to support enhanced teleoperation. By adopting multiple structured light systems, each of which consists of a camera and patterned beam projector, the sensor basis supposedly provides an added level of flexibility and adaptability to variable and unstructured task conditions. The technological innovations include calibration of multiple structured light systems and on-line 3D pose measurement. The application of sensory basis is demonstrated for two types of enhanced teleoperation, namely tele-autonomy and tele-collaboration. The sensory information aids in tele-autonomy by generating autonomous motions, and is utilized in tele-collaboration for generating virtual fixtures.

Remote Manipulation for D&D Exhibiting Teleautonomy and Telecollaboration

The purpose of the work is to enhance remote operations of robotic systems for D&D tasks by extending teleoperation with semi-autonomous functions. The work leverages the

Structured light sensory basis for reactive telerobotic manipulation of a circular saw

1.2M dual-arm work platform (DAWP) developed with broad participation for the CP5 D&D, as well as 2,000 hr DAWP D&D operational experience. We propose to develop a reactive, agent-based control architecture well suited to unstructured and unpredictable environments, and robot control technology, which implements a virtual fixture that can be used to guide the application of tools with force-feedback control. Developed methodologies will be implemented using a structured light sensor and robot hand controller on the dual-arm system.

Visually and Haptically Augmented Teleoperation in D&D Tasks Using Virtual Fixtures

To develop an efficient teleoperation, reactive agent based robotic architecture is proposed, in which manual operation is aided by autonomously acting motor agents. Perceptual agents provide environmental information to the motor agents on need-to-know basis. This paper presents a perceptual basis, consisting of structured light sensor and perceptual agents, for remote operation of a circular saw. The sensory information is integrated with the motor agents and also visually displayed to provide effective operator interface.