Remote Control Robotics

Increasingly, robots are being used in environments inhospitable to humans such as the deep ocean, inside nuclear reactors, and in deep space. Such robots are controlled by remote links to human operators who may be close by or thousands of miles away. The techniques used to control these robots is the subject of this book. The author begins with a basic introduction to robot control and then considers the important problems to be overcome: delays or noisy control lines, feedback and response information, and predictive displays. Readers are assumed to have a basic understanding of robotics though this may be their first exposure to the subject of telerobotics. Professional engineers and roboticists will find this an invaluable introduction to this subject.

1 Introduction.- 1.1 The fundamental tradeoff.- 1.2 Automation.- 1.3 Subsea robotics.- 1.4 Chapter overview.- 2 Basics.- 2.1 Single link robot.- 2.2 Two-link toy.- 2.3 Two-link robot.- 2.4 Forward and inverse kinematics.- 2.5 Redundancy.- 2.6 Moving out of the page.- 2.7 Input devices.- 2.8 Summary.- 3 Historical Perspective.- 3.1 Traditional bilateral teleoperation systems.- 3.2 Giving up force feedback.- 3.3 Other teleoperation systems.- 3.4 Operator aids.- 3.5 Increasingly inter-site distances.- 3.6 Summary.- 4 Remote Control.- 4.1 Control of remote cameras.- 4.2 Controlling a remote machine.- 4.3 Summary.- 5 Teleprogramming.- 5.1 Background.- 5.2 Operation.- 5.3 The fundamental tradeoff.- 5.4 Caches.- 5.5 Summary.- 6 A Natural Operator Interface.- 6.1 The teleprogramming operator interface.- 6.2 Creating a natural interface.- 6.3 The degree-of-freedom problem.- 6.4 Summary.- 7 Synthetic Fixtures.- 7.1 Overview.- 7.2 Operation.- 7.3 Terminology.- 7.4 Command fixtures.- 7.5 Example applications.- 7.6 Algorithm.- 7.7 Application to teleprogramming.- 7.8 Application to conventional teleoperation.- 7.9 Application to virtual reality.- 7.10 Alternative input devices.- 7.11 Summary.- 8 Visual Imagery.- 8.1 Camera calibration.- 8.2 Updating the world model.- 8.3 Real-time visual imagery.- 8.4 Intelligent fragmentation.- 8.5 Intelligent frame rate.- 8.6 Intelligent task rate.- 8.7 Compression algorithms.- 8.8 Other sensory modalities.- 8.9 Future implementations.- 8.10 Summary.- 9 Expecting the Unexpected.- 9.1 Definition.- 9.2 Avoiding operator error.- 9.3 Avoiding interpretation errors.- 9.4 Predicting errors.- 9.5 Error detection and diagnosis.- 9.6 Error recovery.- 9.7 Summary.- 10 Command Generation and Interpretation.- 10.1 Master-to-slave teleprogramming language.- 10.2 Slave-to-master teleprogramming language.- 10.3 Delaying command execution.- 10.4 Adding additional sensory feedback.- 10.5 Summary.- 11 Results and Observations.- 11.1 Laboratory trials.- 11.2 Test-tank trials.- 11.3 Migrating to a subsea system.- 11.4 The October experiments.- 11.5 The November experiments.- 11.6 Future implementations.- 12 Discussion.- 12.1 Bandwidth considerations.- 12.2 Programming by demonstration.- 12.3 Learning experience.- 12.4 Interacting with uncertainty.- 12.5 The virtual reality mirage.- 12.6 Future interfaces.- 12.7 The distant future.- 13 Conclusions.- A.1 Operator interaction with the master station.- A.1.1 The user interface.- A.1.2 The world model.- A.1.3 Interpreting operator action.- A.2 Master-to-slave communication.- A.2.1 Basic definitions.- A.2.2 The command stream.- A.2.3 Pre-motion commands.- A.2.4 Motion commands.- A.2.5 Post-motion commands.- A.2.6 Example command stream.- A.2.7 Telemetry.- A.3 Command execution at the slave site.- A.4 Slave-to-master communication.- A.4.1 The state message.- A.4.2 The reply stream.- A.4.3 The environment reply.- A.4.4 The error reply.- A.4.5 Example reply stream.- A.4.6 Telemetry.- A.5 Interpreting slave replies.- A.6 Maintaining and reviewing the historical record.- References.