Telescience testbed pilot program, volume 2: Program results

Space Station Freedom and its associated labs, coupled with the availability of new computing and communications technologies, have the potential for significantly enhancing scientific research. A Telescience Testbed Pilot Program (TTPP), aimed at developing the experience base to deal with issues in the design of the future information system of the Space Station era. The testbeds represented four scientific disciplines (astronomy and astrophysics, earth sciences, life sciences, and microgravity sciences) and studied issues in payload design, operation, and data analysis. This volume, of a 3 volume set, which all contain the results of the TTPP, contains the integrated results. Background is provided of the program and highlights of the program results. The various testbed experiments and the programmatic approach is summarized. The results are summarized on a discipline by discipline basis, highlighting the lessons learned for each discipline. Then the results are integrated across each discipline, summarizing the lessons learned overall

Remote operation of CeCi social robot

This paper presents a validation methodology for a remote system with its objective focused on a social robot. The research process starts with the customization of an application for smartphones, achieving a simple method of connection and attachment to the robot. This customization allows remote operation of the robot’s movements and an additional level of autonomy for the displacements in previously known locations. One of several teleoperations methods is the direct teleoperations method, which is used in master–slave control mode via a wireless network. Next, the article focuses on proposing a validation methodology for social robot applications design. Under this approach, two tests are performed to validate the designed application. The first one seeks to find the response speed of the communication between the robot and the mobile device wherein 10 devices with different characteristics and capabilities are used. This test is critical since a delay outside the allowable range invalidates the use of the application. The second test measures the application’s usability through a user survey, which allows for determining the preferences that people may have when using this type of application. This second test is essential to consider the overall acceptability of the social robot.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

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

Kinesthetic Haptics Sensing and Discovery with Bilateral Teleoperation Systems

In the mechanical engineering field of robotics, bilateral teleoperation is a classic but still increasing research topic. In bilateral teleoperation, a human operator moves the master manipulator, and a slave manipulator is controlled to follow the motion of the master in a remote, potentially hostile environment. This dissertation focuses on kinesthetic perception analysis in teleoperation systems. Design of the controllers of the systems is studied as the influential factor of this issue. The controllers that can provide different force tracking capability are compared using the same experimental protocol. A 6 DOF teleoperation system is configured as the system testbed. An innovative master manipulator is developed and a 7 DOF redundant manipulator is used as the slave robot. A singularity avoidance inverse kinematics algorithm is developed to resolve the redundancy of the slave manipulator. An experimental protocol is addressed and three dynamics attributes related to kineshtetic feedback are investigated: weight, center of gravity and inertia. The results support our hypothesis: the controller that can bring a better force feedback can improve the performance in the experiments

Cooperative control of multi-robot system with force reflecting via internet

Lo Wang Tai.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-63).Abstracts in English and Chinese.Abstract --- p.iAcknowledgement --- p.iiiTables of Content --- p.ivList of Figures --- p.viiList of Tables --- p.viiiChapter Chapter1 --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Internet-based Tele-cooperation --- p.1Chapter 1.1.1 --- Cooperative Control of Multiple Robot --- p.1Chapter 1.1.2 --- Internet-based Teleoperation --- p.3Chapter 1.1.3 --- Time Delay of Internet Communication --- p.4Chapter 1.2 --- Related Work --- p.5Chapter 1.3 --- Motivation and Contribution --- p.6Chapter 1.3.1 --- Motivation --- p.6Chapter 1.3.2 --- Contribution --- p.7Chapter 1.4 --- Outline of the thesis --- p.8Chapter Chapter2 --- The Internet Robotic System --- p.9Chapter 2.1 --- System Architecture --- p.9Chapter 2.2 --- The Hardware --- p.12Chapter 2.2.1 --- Operator System --- p.12Chapter 2.2.2 --- Mobile Robot System --- p.13Chapter 2.2.3 --- Multi-fingered Robot Hand System --- p.17Chapter 2.2.4 --- Visual Tracking System --- p.19Chapter 2.3 --- Software Design --- p.21Chapter 2.3.1 --- Robot Client and Arm Client --- p.22Chapter 2.3.2 --- Robot Server --- p.23Chapter 2.3.3 --- Image Server --- p.25Chapter 2.3.4 --- Arm Server --- p.75Chapter 2.3.5 --- Arm Controller --- p.27Chapter 2.3.6 --- Finger Server --- p.27Chapter 2.3.7 --- Finger Controller --- p.27Chapter 2.3.8 --- Robot Tracker --- p.28Chapter 2.3.9 --- Interaction Forwarder --- p.28Chapter Chapter3 --- Event-based Control for Force Reflecting Teleoperation --- p.29Chapter 3.1 --- Modeling and Control --- p.29Chapter 3.1.1 --- Model of Operator System --- p.31Chapter 3.1.2 --- Model of Mobile Robot System --- p.33Chapter 3.1.3 --- Model of Multi-fingered Hand System --- p.34Chapter 3.2 --- Force Feedback Generation --- p.35Chapter 3.2.1 --- Obstacle Avoidance --- p.35Chapter 3.2.2 --- Singularity Avoidance --- p.38Chapter 3.2.3 --- Interaction Rendering --- p.40Chapter Chapter4 --- Experiments --- p.42Chapter 4.1 --- Experiment1 --- p.42Chapter 4.2 --- Experiment2 --- p.47Chapter 4.3 --- Experiment3 --- p.52Chapter Chapter5 --- Future Wok --- p.54Chapter Chapter6 --- Conclusions --- p.56Bibliography --- p.5

Research and Development. Strategy. Program 2002. Results 2001

This report outlines the strategies, aims, nature, contents and results of research and development activities at the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Finland. It also describes the methods and good practice being followed and provides information on the programmes and projects currently in progress and the results achieved in 2001

Haptic communication for remote mobile and manipulator robot operations in hazardous environments

Nuclear decommissioning involves the use of remotely deployed mobile vehicles and manipulators controlled via teleoperation systems. Manipulators are used for tooling and sorting tasks, and mobile vehicles are used to locate a manipulator near to the area that it is to be operated upon and also to carry a camera into a remote area for monitoring and assessment purposes. Teleoperations in hazardous environments are often hampered by a lack of visual information. Direct line of sight is often only available through small, thick windows, which often become discoloured and less transparent over time. Ideal camera locations are generally not possible, which can lead to areas of the cell not being visible, or at least difficult to see. Damage to the mobile, manipulator, tool or environment can be very expensive and dangerous. Despite the advances in the recent years of autonomous systems, the nuclear industry prefers generally to ensure that there is a human in the loop. This is due to the safety critical nature of the industry. Haptic interfaces provide a means of allowing an operator to control aspects of a task that would be difficult or impossible to control with impoverished visual feedback alone. Manipulator endeffector force control and mobile vehicle collision avoidance are examples of such tasks. Haptic communication has been integrated with both a Schilling Titan II manipulator teleoperation system and Cybermotion K2A mobile vehicle teleoperation system. The manipulator research was carried out using a real manipulator whereas the mobile research was carried out in simulation. Novel haptic communication generation algorithms have been developed. Experiments have been conducted using both the mobile and the manipulator to assess the performance gains offered by haptic communication. The results of the mobile vehicle experiments show that haptic feedback offered performance improvements in systems where the operator is solely responsible for control of the vehicle. However in systems where the operator is assisted by semi autonomous behaviour that can perform obstacle avoidance, the advantages of haptic feedback were more subtle. The results from the manipulator experiments served to support the results from the mobile vehicle experiments since they also show that haptic feedback does not always improve operator performance. Instead, performance gains rely heavily on the nature of the task, other system feedback channels and operator assistance features. The tasks performed with the manipulator were peg insertion, grinding and drilling.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Seventh Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 1993), volume 1

This document contains papers presented at the Space Operations, Applications and Research Symposium (SOAR) Symposium hosted by NASA/Johnson Space Center (JSC) on August 3-5, 1993, and held at JSC Gilruth Recreation Center. SOAR included NASA and USAF programmatic overview, plenary session, panel discussions, panel sessions, and exhibits. It invited technical papers in support of U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Department of Energy, NASA, and USAF programs in the following areas: robotics and telepresence, automation and intelligent systems, human factors, life support, and space maintenance and servicing. SOAR was concerned with Government-sponsored research and development relevant to aerospace operations. More than 100 technical papers, 17 exhibits, a plenary session, several panel discussions, and several keynote speeches were included in SOAR '93