ROBOTIC TELESURGERY: AN INVESTIGATION OF UTILITY, HUMAN ADAPTATION, AND PERFORMANCE

Robotic surgery is a powerful, new method for performing minimally invasive surgery (MIS). The method allows complex procedures through incisions which are 10 mm or less. Robotic surgery has grown rapidly because small MIS incisions result in rapid patient recovery compared to conventional methods. Although surgical robots have the potential of long distance control, insufficient data is available to determine whether long distance robotic surgery, or telesurgery, is practical. Telesurgery could provide multiple benefits, including dissemination of expertise, widespread patient care, cost savings, and improved community care. We describe a series of experiments to investigate telesurgery using a one of a kind telesurgery platform and ground- and satellite-based Internet networks. The networks provided the redundancy and quality of service that would be required for human surgery. Tolerances for performing surgical tasks over a long distance were unknown. We show that operators using the platform can complete dry lab manoeuvres with communication latencies up to 500 ms, with no appreciable increase in error rates. Such latency would be equivalent to a North American transcontinental distance, implying a wide range of telesurgical capability. The characteristics of ground- and satellite-based Internet networks for telesurgery were unavailable. We demonstrate that emulated surgery in animals can be effectively performed using either ground or satellite. The networks can reliably support surgery, and satellite-based surgery can be performed even though latency exceeds 500 ms. Further, satellite bandwidth should be above 5 Mb/s for telesurgery applications. Satellite networks could be used either for back up or primarily where a community does not have ground-based equipment. iii Methods of training operators for telesurgery had not been explored. We demonstrate two methods of training for telesurgery. Operators doing dry lab surgical manoeuvres performed equally well either with sequentially increasing latency or with full latency only, suggesting that both methods of training may be effective. Telesurgery can become a practical method of treatment. Within a few years, more widespread platforms and telecommunications may exist to launch everyday telesurgery procedures

Virtual reality aided vehicle teleoperation

This thesis describes a novel approach to vehicle teleoperation. Vehicle teleoperation is the human mediated control of a vehicle from a remote location. Typical methods for providing updates of the world around the vehicle use vehicle mounted video cameras. This methodology suffers from two problems: lag and limited field of view. Lag is the amount of time it takes for a signal to travel from the operator\u27s location to the vehicle. This lag causes the images from the camera and commands from the operator to be delayed. This behavior is a serious problem when the vehicle is approaching an obstacle. If the delay is long enough, the vehicle might crash into an obstacle before the operator knows that it is there. To complicate matters, most cameras provide only a small arc of visibility around the vehicle that leaves a significant blind spot. Therefore, hazards close to the vehicle might not be visible to the operator, such as a rock behind and to the left of the vehicle. In that case, if the vehicle were maneuvered sharply to the left, it might impact the rock. Virtual reality has been used to attack these two problems. A simulation of the vehicle is used to predict its positional response to inputs. This response is then displayed in a virtual world that mimics the operational environment. A dynamics algorithm called the wagon tongue method is used by a computer at the remote site to correct for inaccuracies between the simulated vehicle position and the actual vehicle position. The wagon tongue method eliminates the effect of the average lag value. Synchronization code is used to ensure that the vehicle executes commands with the same amount of time between them as when the operator issued them. This system behavior eliminates the effects of lag variation. The problem of limited field of view is solved by using a virtual camera viewpoint behind the vehicle that displays the entire world around the vehicle. This thesis develops and compares a system using virtual reality aided teleoperation with direct control and vehicle mounted camera aided teleoperation

Faciliter la téléopération d'un robot mobile non-holonome (application au maintien à domicile des personnes âgées)

Le maintien de personnes âgées au domicile le plus longtemps possible est censé apporter une réponse à la croissance de l espérance de vie en occident et a des coûts toujours croissants pour la société. ce travail de thèse a été réalisé dans le cadre du projet CompanionAble, qui vise a fournir une solution intégrée maison intelligente - robot aux personnes âgées, vivant seules. L'objectif est de maintenir un confort en fin de vie à un niveau élevé et à traiter les situations dangereuses pour elles, comme les chutes, avant que les conséquences ne deviennent trop importantes. Les éléments qui m intéressent dans ce cadre sont le robot et l opérateur, qui se trouve à l extérieur de la maison, et qui peut téléopérer le robot en vue d interagir avec la personne âgée, soit pour des activités ludiques (visioconférence, exercices de stimulation cognitive), soit pour des situations d urgence (chute, perte de connaissance de la personne âgée). Pour maintenir les coûts du système à un niveau raisonnable, on a envisagé l utilisation de l internet public pour la connexion entre le site maître (où se trouve l opérateur) et le site esclave (où se trouve le robot). Une autre spécificité du notre système est le fait que les utilisateurs ne sont pas des spécialistes de la téléopération. J ai donc cherché à faciliter la tâche de pilotage du robot, dans ce contexte spécifique. Du côté de l interface, on a cherché à aider l opérateur traitant les problèmes liés aux délais de transmission (possibles à cause de l utilisation de l internet) et lui donner la possibilité d utiliser une interface écologique, qui utilise des éléments de réalité augmentée. Du côté du robot, on a rajouté un nouveau mode de commande, semi-autonome, pour que l opérateur soit plus à l aise pendant qu il le déplace. Pour finir, on a examiné la possibilité de passer d un mode de commande à un autre, pour que l opérateur soit le moins affecté que possible par des perturbations et que les performances du système restent acceptables. Les solutions proposées ont été implantée sur un système réel et évaluées au laboratoire et en situations réelles dans le cadre du projet européen CompanionAble.Enabling older people to live in their homes as long as possible is supposed to respond to the growth of life expectancy in the west and the increasing costs to society. The present thesis was conducted in the framework of the companionable, which aims to provide an integrated smart home - robot for the elderly, which are living alone. The objective is to maintain the end of life comfort at a high level and to deal with dangerous situations for them, such as falls, before the consequences become too costly. The elements that interest me in this context are the robot and the remote operator, which is outside the home, and can teleoperate the robot to interact with the elderly, for recreational activities ( videoconferencing, cognitive stimulation exercises) or for emergency situations (falls, loss of consciousness, etc.). To keep the system costs to a reasonable level, we considered using the public internet as the connection between the master site (where the operator is) and the slave site (where the robot is). another unique feature of our system is that users are not specialists in teleoperation. As such, i tried to ease the task of controlling the robot, in this specific context. On the remote control interface side, we tried to help the operator in dealing with the problems associated with transmission delays (due to the possible use of the internet) and we gave him/her the option of using an ecological interface, which uses elements of augmented reality. On the robot side, we added a new command mode, semi-autonomous, so that the operator is more at ease as he/she controls the robot. finally, we examined the possibility of switching from one control mode to another, so that the operator is the least affected by possible disturbances and system performance is kept acceptable. The proposed solutions have been implemented on a real system and evaluated in the laboratory and in real situations, in the framework of the european CompanionAble project.EVRY-Bib. électronique (912289901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Evaluation of gaming environments for mixed reality interfaces and human supervisory control in telerobotics

Telerobotics refers to a branch of technology that deals with controlling a robot from a distance. It is commonly used to access difficult environments, reduce operating costs, and to improve comfort and safety. However, difficulties have emerged in telerobotics development. Effective telerobotics requires maximising operator performance and previous research has identified issues which reduce operator performance, such as operator attention being divided across the numerous custom built interfaces and continuous operator involvement in a high workload situation potentially causing exhaustion and subsequent operator error. This thesis evaluates mixed reality and human supervisory control concepts in a gaming engine environment for telerobotics. This concept is proposed in order to improve the effectiveness of current technology in telerobotic interfaces. Four experiments are reported in this thesis which covers virtual gaming environments, mixed reality interfaces, and human supervisory control and aims to advance telerobotics technology. This thesis argues that gaming environments are useful for building telerobotic interfaces and examines the properties required for telerobotics. A useful feature provided by gaming environments is that of overlying video on virtual objects to support mixed reality interfaces. Experiments in this thesis show that mixed reality interfaces provide useful information without distracting the operator from the task. This thesis introduces two response models based on the planning process of human supervisory control: Adaptation and Queue response models. The experimental results show superior user performance under these two response models compared to direct/manual control. In the final experiment a large number of novice users, with a diversity of backgrounds, used a robot arm to push blocks into a hole by using these two response models. Further analyses on evaluating the user performance on the interfaces with two response models were found to be well fitted by a Weibull distribution. Operators preferred the interface with the Queue response model over the interface with the Adaptation response model, and human supervisory control over direct/manual control. It is expected that the increased sophistication of control commands in a production system will usually be greater than those that were tested in this thesis, where limited time was available for automation development. Where that is the case the increases in human productivity using human supervisory control found in this experiment can be expected to be greater. The research conducted here has shown that mixed reality in gaming environments, when combined with human supervisory control, offers a good route for overcoming limitations in current telerobotics technology. Practical applications would benefit by the application of these methods, making it possible for the operator to have the necessary information available in a convenient and non-distracting form, considerably improving productivity

Application of neuroergonomics in the industrial design of mining equipment.

Neuroergonomics is an interdisciplinary field merging neuroscience and ergonomics to optimize performance. In order to design an optimal user interface, we must understand the cognitive processing involved. Traditional methodology incorporates self-assessment from the user. This dissertation examines the use of neurophysiological techniques in quantifying the cognitive processing involved in allocating cognitive resources. Attentional resources, cognitive processing, memory and visual scanning are examined to test the ecological validity of theoretical laboratory settings and how they translate to real life settings. By incorporating a non-invasive measurement technique, such as the quantitative electroencephalogram (QEEG), we are able to examine connectivity patterns in the brain during operation and discern whether or not a user has obtained expert status. Understanding the activation patterns during each phase of design will allow us to gauge whether our design has balanced the cognitive requirements of the user.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Natural Resources Engineerin