Tele-autonomous systems: New methods for projecting and coordinating intelligent action at a distance

There is a growing need for humans to perform complex remote operations and to extend the intelligence and experience of experts to distant applications. It is asserted that a blending of human intelligence, modern information technology, remote control, and intelligent autonomous systems is required, and have coined the term tele-autonomous technology, or tele-automation, for methods producing intelligent action at a distance. Tele-automation goes beyond autonomous control by blending in human intelligence. It goes beyond tele-operation by incorporating as much autonomy as possible and/or reasonable. A new approach is discussed for solving one of the fundamental problems facing tele-autonomous systems: The need to overcome time delays due to telemetry and signal propagation. New concepts are introduced called time and position clutches, that allow the time and position frames between the local user control and the remote device being controlled, to be desynchronized respectively. The design and implementation of these mechanisms are described in detail. It is demonstrated that these mechanisms lead to substantial telemanipulation performance improvements, including the result of improvements even in the absence of time delays. The new controls also yield a simple protocol for control handoffs of manipulation tasks between local operators and remote systems

Evaluation of non-chromate passivations on electroplated γ-phase zinc nickel

This research focused on the corrosion response and electrochemical behavior of electroplated low hydrogen embrittlement alkaline γ-phase zinc nickel with passivation layers. The motivation was the need to replace hexavalent chromium conversion coatings in military grade electrical systems with a more environment friendly alternative. The passivation layers were employed for the purpose of mitigating corrosion attack while maintaining low contact resistance. Trivalent chromium-based passivations and cerium-based passivations were compared against the currently used hexavalent chromium conversion coating. The coating systems were compared using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic potentiodymanic scans, salt spray exposure testing, electrical resistance measurements, microstructure analysis, and compositional analysis. Coating systems with lower open circuit had a lower corrosion current and performed better during salt spray testing. All of the systems evaluated had corrosion products consistent with oxidized zinc compounds but the morphology of the passivation was dependent on the passivation. The electrical contact resistance ranged from 1 to 108 mΩ/cm2, after salt spray testing. Two versions of Trivalent chromium-based passivations, were able to meet military performance specifications after corrosion testing --Abstract, page iv

Tele-Autonomous control involving contact

Object localization and its application in tele-autonomous systems are studied. Two object localization algorithms are presented together with the methods of extracting several important types of object features. The first algorithm is based on line-segment to line-segment matching. Line range sensors are used to extract line-segment features from an object. The extracted features are matched to corresponding model features to compute the location of the object. The inputs of the second algorithm are not limited only to the line features. Featured points (point to point matching) and featured unit direction vectors (vector to vector matching) can also be used as the inputs of the algorithm, and there is no upper limit on the number of the features inputed. The algorithm will allow the use of redundant features to find a better solution. The algorithm uses dual number quaternions to represent the position and orientation of an object and uses the least squares optimization method to find an optimal solution for the object's location. The advantage of using this representation is that the method solves for the location estimation by minimizing a single cost function associated with the sum of the orientation and position errors and thus has a better performance on the estimation, both in accuracy and speed, than that of other similar algorithms. The difficulties when the operator is controlling a remote robot to perform manipulation tasks are also discussed. The main problems facing the operator are time delays on the signal transmission and the uncertainties of the remote environment. How object localization techniques can be used together with other techniques such as predictor display and time desynchronization to help to overcome these difficulties are then discussed

Towards a loophole-free test of Bell's inequality with entangled pairs of neutral atoms

Experimental tests of Bell's inequality allow to distinguish quantum mechanics from local hidden variable theories. Such tests are performed by measuring correlations of two entangled particles (e.g. polarization of photons or spins of atoms). In order to constitute conclusive evidence, two conditions have to be satisfied. First, strict separation of the measurement events in the sense of special relativity is required ("locality loophole"). Second, almost all entangled pairs have to be detected (for particles in a maximally entangled state the required detector efficiency is 82.8%), which is hard to achieve experimentally ("detection loophole"). By using the recently demonstrated entanglement between single trapped atoms and single photons it becomes possible to entangle two atoms at a large distance via entanglement swapping. Combining the high detection efficiency achieved with atoms with the space-like separation of the atomic state detection events, both loopholes can be closed within the same experiment. In this paper we present estimations based on current experimental achievements which show that such an experiment is feasible in future.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Advanced Science Letter

Die Rissentstehung in statisch beanspruchten Stahlkonstruktionen unter Berücksichtigung von Schweißeigenspannungen

In dieser Arbeit wird die Rissentstehung infolge statischer Beanspruchung erklärt. Auf der Basis vorhandener Ansätze für die Reduzierung der Bruchdehnung für Stahl mit zunehmender Mehrachsigkeit wird eine Funktion vorgestellt, mit der die Bruchdehnung und damit auch die Rissentstehung infolge verschiedener Einflüsse und unter Berücksichtigung von Schweißeigenspannungen berechnet werden kann

New concepts in tele-autonomous systems

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76226/1/AIAA-1987-1686-200.pd