Abstract
Teleoperated mobile robots, equipped with object manipulation capabilities, provide safe means for executing dangerous tasks in hazardous environments without putting humans at risk. However, mainly due to a communication delay, complex operator interfaces and insufficient Situational Awareness (SA), the task productivity of telerobots remains inferior to human workers. This paper addresses the shortcomings of telerobots by proposing a combined approach of (i) a scalable and intuitive operator interface with gestural and verbal input, (ii) improved Situational Awareness (SA) through sensor fusion according to documented best practices, (iii) integrated virtual fixtures for task simplification and minimizing the operator’s cognitive burden and (iv) integrated semiautonomous behaviors that further reduce cognitive burden and negate the impact of communication delays, execution latency and/or failures. The proposed teleoperation system, TeMoto, is implemented using ROS (Robot Operating System) to ensure hardware agnosticism, extensibility and community access. The operator’s command interface consists of a Leap Motion Controller for hand tracking, Griffin PowerMate USB as turn knob for scaling and a microphone for speech input. TeMoto is evaluated on multiple robots including two mobile manipulator platforms. In addition to standard, task-specific evaluation techniques (completion time, user studies, number of steps, etc.)—which are platform and task dependent and thus difficult to scale—this paper presents additional metrics for evaluating the user interface including task-independent criteria for measuring generalized (i) task completion efficiency and (ii) operator context switching.
Highlights
Telerobotics have successfully proven useful in numerous applications, allowing operators to execute tasks from a safe distance
Many tasks are still completed by human operators despite the presence of hazards as well as the costs associated with protective gear, training and additional waste disposal
A study on Telerobotictelerobotic hand tracking applications have demonstrated the benefits of gesture-based control for surgery indicates that touch-free interfaces have a faster learning rate than touch-based platform orinterfaces robot end-effector guidance
Summary
Telerobotics have successfully proven useful in numerous applications, allowing operators to execute tasks from a safe distance. Workers still have performance and cognitive advantages over remote systems including work-rate, adaptability, dexterity and minimal delay and latency issues during task planning and execution. These advantages justify this choice in all but the most dangerous of environments. An integral part of any teleoperation system—regardless of the LOA—is the user interface, which must be intuitive and easy to learn even when the system and/or task is complex This requirement must not restrict the operator’s access to data. The developed teleoperation interface, TeMoto (TeMoto is a Japanese noun, which translates as ‘At Hand’), is an intuitive, hardware agnostic, supervisory controller for remote systems that properly enables an operator’s innate capabilities while completing tasks remotely.
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