A collaborative multi-site teleoperation over an ISDN

Abstract

We have developed an advanced infrastructure and technologies for collaborative remote operations, enabling multiple operators with large physical separation to control multiple slave robots in a common environment over the network. Human operators’ delayed visual perception arising from communication time delays seriously affects the performance of collaborative multi-site operations and accordingly requires supplementary information locally available to operators irrespective of time delays. Few facilities exist to investigate remote multi-site operations, thus we have built an experimental test bed connecting Tsukuba and Kawasaki in Japan via an integrated services digital network. In particular, an on-line predictive graphics simulator is incorporated to cope with image feedback delays from the remote site. Specifically, exploiting audio-visual features of the simulator, operators can detect a priori the possibility of collision between robots and guide them towards task goal through time delays. To verify the validity of the simulator assisted approach, we have performed a demonstration of prototype plant maintenance in April 2000 between Tsukuba and Kawasaki.