A phantom interface for the teleoperation of a mobile platform over the internet

The ability to teleoperate a mobile vehicle over the internet is a difficult task. Many sensory signals must be processed by the user in order to make an informed and safe vehicle-guiding decision. So much so, that the interface design is often the downfall of an otherwise capable mobile robot. A good interface should be able to relieve the user of some of the visual sensor strain and still result in a safely controlled mobile platform. The research detailed in thesis first, describes the construction of a reliable and sensor rich platform for remote vehicle control. Then an interface is developed that adds haptic sensing to divert some of the strain from the operator, resulting in an easy-to-drive remote vehicle application

Unlimited-wokspace teleoperation

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Izmir, 2012Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 100-105)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxiv, 109 leavesTeleoperation is, in its brief description, operating a vehicle or a manipulator from a distance. Teleoperation is used to reduce mission cost, protect humans from accidents that can be occurred during the mission, and perform complex missions for tasks that take place in areas which are difficult to reach or dangerous for humans. Teleoperation is divided into two main categories as unilateral and bilateral teleoperation according to information flow. This flow can be configured to be in either one direction (only from master to slave) or two directions (from master to slave and from slave to master). In unlimited-workspace teleoperation, one of the types of bilateral teleoperation, mobile robots are controlled by the operator and environmental information is transferred from the mobile robot to the operator. Teleoperated vehicles can be used in a variety of missions in air, on ground and in water. Therefore, different constructional types of robots can be designed for the different types of missions. This thesis aims to design and develop an unlimited-workspace teleoperation which includes an omnidirectional mobile robot as the slave system to be used in further researches. Initially, an omnidirectional mobile robot was manufactured and robot-operator interaction and efficient data transfer was provided with the established communication line. Wheel velocities were measured in real-time by Hall-effect sensors mounted on robot chassis to be integrated in controllers. A dynamic obstacle detection system, which is suitable for omnidirectional mobility, was developed and two obstacle avoidance algorithms (semi-autonomous and force reflecting) were created and tested. Distance information between the robot and the obstacles was collected by an array of sensors mounted on the robot. In the semi-autonomous teleoperation scenario, distance information is used to avoid obstacles autonomously and in the force-reflecting teleoperation scenario obstacles are informed to the user by sending back the artificially created forces acting on the slave robot. The test results indicate that obstacle avoidance performance of the developed vehicle with two algorithms is acceptable in all test scenarios. In addition, two control models were developed (kinematic and dynamic control) for the local controller of the slave robot. Also, kinematic controller was supported by gyroscope

Teleoperación [de robots]: técnicas, aplicaciones, entorno sensorial y teleoperación inteligente

En este trabajo centraremos la atención en los sistemas robóticos teleoperados, especialmente analizaremos los sistemas teleoperados desde internet, veremos una clasificación de las metodologías de teleoperación, los diferentes sistemas de control y daremos una visión del estado del arte en este ámbito de conocimiento

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

A reference control architecture for teleoperated service robots

[SPA] Las unidades de control de robots son sistemas intensivos en software, por lo que el diseño del mismo es esencial para el desarrollo y evolución del sistema global. El hardware es también un elemento primordial en estos sistemas, no sólo por su papel como plataforma de ejecución del software de control, sino porque es habitual encontrar componentes COTS o diseñados especialmente para la aplicación, que realizan parte de la funcionalidad del sistema. Por ello, hardware y software se deben poder integrar adecuadamente y combinar de distintas formas de acuerdo con el diseño del sistema. Para manejar la complejidad intrínseca de estos sistemas, se hace necesario plantear modelos de desarrollo rigurosos y arquitecturas bien definidas que se puedan reutilizar en otros productos. Disponer de tales arquitecturas facilita enormemente el desarrollo de nuevas aplicaciones fiables y de calidad, pues permite, por un lado la reutilización de modelos y componentes y por otro, ofrece un marco para el desarrollo de los mismos. De este modo se pueden reducir costes dado que se reduce el tiempo de desarrollo y se reutilizan componentes ya probados. En esta tesis se propone ACROSET como una arquitectura de referencia para el dominio de las unidades de control de robots de servicio teleoperados que define los principales subsistemas que deben o pueden aparecer en cualquier arquitectura concreta, sus responsabilidades y relaciones. En ACROSET se propone un modelo de componentes conceptual en el que se definen los componentes que pueden aparecer en cualquier sistema del dominio considerado y los patrones de interacción entre componentes al mismo nivel que éstos, gracias al uso de puertos y conectores. Una de las principales características de ACROSET es su flexibilidad tanto para la definición de arquitecturas de sistemas concretos como para la evolución de las mismas. Precisamente el éxito de la arquitectura residirá en su habilidad para adaptarse a la variabilidad entre los sistemas del dominio para el que ha sido definida. Para el nivel de abstracción que exige el manejo de tal variabilidad, las metodologías de desarrollo dirigidas por casos de uso no son apropiadas, por lo que se adopta una metodología orientada específicamente hacia el diseño de arquitecturas como el ABD (Architecture Based Design Method), que parte de requisitos funcionales y de calidad lo suficientemente amplios y abstractos como para abarcar todo el dominio. Dicha metodología se completa con el modelo de 4 vistas propuesto por Hofmeister con el fin de expresar el modelo conceptual en UML y tratar a componentes y conectores como entidades de primera clase. Se ha validado ACROSET con su instanciación para las unidades de control de diversos robots de limpieza de cascos de buques. En concreto, en esta tesis se presenta su instanciación para el prototipo GOYA y la familia de robots del proyecto EFTCoR. También se ha utilizado un robot didáctico 4U4 para probar diferentes combinaciones hardware/software a partir de ACROSET.[ENG] Robots control units are software intensive systems, so that the design of that software is essential for the development and evolution of the overall system. Hardware is also a primordial element in these systems, not only for its role as an execution platform for the control software, but because it is habitual to find COTS components or especially designed components that carry out part of the functionality of the system. For that reason, hardware and software should can be appropriately integrated and combined in different ways according to the design of the system. To deal with the intrinsic complexity of these systems is necessary to use rigorous development methods and architectural frameworks and tools that embody well defined concepts to enable effective realization of systems to meet high level goals. Such methods and architectural frameworks allow rapid development of systems and reuse of a large variety of components, with oncomitant savings in time and money. In this thesis ACROSET is proposed as reference architecture for the domain of control units for teleoperated service robots. This architecture defines the main subsystems that should or could appear in any concrete architecture, their responsibilities and relationships. ACROSET proposes a conceptual framework to define the components and their interaction patterns that could appear in any system of the considered domain. This architectural framework relies on the abstract concepts of component,port and connector. One of the main characteristics of ACROSET is its flexibility as much for the definition of architectures for concrete systems as for the evolution of the same ones. The success of the architecture depends on its ability to deal with the variability among the systems of the considered domain. Furthermore, at the level of abstraction required to manage the variability of the systems, the development methodologies directed by use cases are not appropriate. For this reason, an architecture oriented approach is adopted: the ABD (Architecture Based Design Method), which starts from functional and quality requirements wide and abstract enough to include the entire domain. Such method is completed with the 4 views proposed by Hofmeister to express the conceptual view of the architecture with UML and to treat components and connectors as first class entities. ACROSET has been validated with different instantiations for the control units of various ship hull cleaning robots. Specifically, in this thesis the instantiation of ACROSET for the GOYA prototype and the family of robots in the EFTCoR project is presented. A didactic robot (4U4) has also been used to test different hardware/software combinations.Universidad Politécnica de CartagenaPrograma de doctorado en Tecnología electrónic

Effective Vehicle Teleoperation on the World Wide Web

Our goal is to make vehicle teleoperation accessible to all users. To do this, we are developing easy-to-use yet capable Web tools which enable efficient, robust teleoperation in unknown and unstructured environments. Webbased teleoperation, however, raises many research issues, as well as prohibiting the use of traditional approaches. Thus, it is essential to develop new methods which minimize bandwidth usage, which provide sensor fusion displays, and which optimize human-computer interaction. We believe that existing systems do not adequately address these issues and have severely limited capability and performance as a result. In this paper, we present a system design for safe and reliable Web-based vehicle teleoperation, describe an active and dynamic user interface, and explain how our approach differs from existing systems