Augmented Tele-robotic Control

Faculty: Richard Stone

Graduate Mentors: Minglu Wang, Jay Roltgen

Interns: Amy Green, Ivan Ojeda, P.J. Campbell

High fidelity telepresence is considered to be a key factor for the development of highly effective telerobotic systems. The focus of this work is the integration of augmented reality (and or multi-touch technology) and visualization tools to create a control system that will enhance a humans' ability to effectively perform the complex telerobotic operation of target acquisition and collection. Students assigned to this project will work with an actual long range high performance telerobotic reconnaissance robot; they will be tasked with designing and implementing a multitouch interface system that will effectively enhance human comprehension and sense of presence. The group will learn some of the physiological and cognitive factors that are considered when designing for telepresence and how to implement these designs into testable prototypes. Following implementation the students will be exposed to experimental design concepts and participate in actual human subject testing of the groups design. During testing the students will learn how to perform basic measures of human performance. Following testing the data will be analyzed and results will form the bases of our conference paper.

Telerobotics Testing Photos

Tasks

1. Research current multi-touch interfaces (Pros and cons development).
2. Learn how to interface with the robot.
3. Learn about the robot.
   1. Capabilities
   2. Improvements
   3. Technology
4. Develop restrictions for the robot (Safety plan).
5. Research different user interface designs.
6. Develop interface
   (The graphical user interface)
   What is displayed (how to present the information); toolbars; ect.
   1. Ideas of Familiar interfaces
      • DVD
      • Game controllers
      • Steering wheel, pedals
      • Lock on the car door
      • Handle bars
      • Zoom
   2. Position/ Location
      • GPS
      • Signs
      • Maps
        1. Streets
        2. Icons
        3. Familiar symbols
        4. Legend
        5. Distance (scale) representation
        6. Mini map
7. Need a way to display orientation (What do people care about, important elements).
8. Programmers need to research the multi-touch frameworks.
9. Decide what to study (specific topic).
10. Determine challenges
11. Determine how to mark what we find (dealing with what we have the robot locate).

Milestones

1. Drawings and sketches of how the interface will look.
2. Exactly how the user will interact with the application.
3. Experiment design
1. Surveys
2. Paper work ect.
4. Control over the robot (over keyboard, joystick control, ect.)
5. Integrating our design interface to control the robot.
6. Initial research completed.
7. Finish the study with human participants.
8. Final Presentation.

Deliverables

1. Application for control of the robot.
2. User study survey
3. Results of our experiment
4. Final Presentation
5. Safety Requirements.

Links

Problem
Methods Report
Literature Review
Situation Awareness Rating Technique
Task Analysis
Item List
Papers
Poster
Poster InDesign File
Telerobotic Control Research Paper: Second Revision
Third revision coming soon