Telerobotics
The telerobotic is a branch of robotics that deals with the control of robots employed from a distance. Above all, wireless transmission methods such as wireless LAN , Bluetooth , the Deep Space Network , tethering or the Internet are used . A distinction is made between two major areas: telepresence with telepresence robots and teleoperation with teleoperation robots .
overview
Teleoperation
To put it simply, teleoperation means: working at a distance . A teleoperator (also called telemanipulator) is a technical device that is controlled remotely from a human control station. If this device is capable of autonomous work, it is called a telerobot . If it is completely autonomous, it is called a robot .
In simple cases, the commands from the control center correspond to those from the device, for example in the case of a remote-controlled aircraft or a remotely operated vehicle . In cases where delays or interruptions in communication make direct control of the device impractical (for example in the case of a rover in the aerospace industry), or in which the workload of the control room needs to be minimized (for example in an unmanned aerial vehicle ), the devices are used not controlled by direct commands, rather they are given a more general task and the device will try to perform this task autonomously. The further the device is perfected in this direction, the more it develops from a telerobot to a robot.
Telepresence
To put it simply, telepresence means being somewhere else virtually . The telepresence robot transmits the perception of its sensors to the control center. The technical challenge here is not so much to transmit the sensor results, but to create the impression of virtual reality .
The MIT Professor Rodney Brooks formulated the following vision:
“The telepresence robots will fulfill our wishes at one thought. While we may be physically present in a certain place, we will be able to mentally project ourselves into a telepresence device and another place if we are authorized to do so. Everyone who doesn't have this technology will want it soon. "
Telepresence robots are mainly used in the military sector, but are also used in civil remote sensing . In the military environment, they are often referred to as drones . Their area of application is often in education where the use is too dangerous for people.
history
The cable or radio-controlled miniature Goliath tank can be seen as one of the forerunners of mobile telerobots . Another rudimentary telerobot was developed by Raymond Goertz at the Argonne National Laboratory in 1945 . He created a robotic arm with which highly radioactive material could be remotely moved in a shelter. At first the arm was controlled by mechanical trains, but from 1954 the machine was switched to an electrical servomechanics.
William R. Corliss and Eric G. Johnson began developing the first telepresence robot in the mid-1950s, even if they didn't call it that, which already had a rotating camera. The Russian scientist Aaron Kobrinskii created a forearm prosthesis in 1960 , which was controlled by the body's own electrical signals from the upper arm stump.
In the 1960s, researchers in the United States and the Soviet Union began developing remote-controlled robots for space exploration. The first telerobot in space eventually became the Soviet Lunochod 1 , which was powered by a solar cell and had a camera and a laser reflector.
In the 1970s, the research focus shifted to industrial applications. In this decade, however, the first underwater telerobots were built. However, after the exaggerated hopes of the industry for telerobots from the 1970s had not been fulfilled, research in this area slowed noticeably in the 1980s and 1990s. The NASA Space Telerobotics Program was also discontinued in 1997.
Interest in telerobots has been increasing again since around 2000, as they can now be controlled more easily via the well-developed Internet. The research focused primarily on military and medical applications.
technology
The two most important components of telerobots are the sensors and the control technology . Wireless video transmission systems are mostly used for visual sensors . Positioning the camera on the telerobot in such a way that it allows intuitive control of the device is not trivial, since delays or disruptions in data transmission can occur.
In particular, in a camera control via head-mounted display are latency often unpleasant for the user and make the control unintuitive. Such delays, disturbances or other restrictions can cause so-called simulator sickness with nausea in the user .
Interfaces
Telerobots can be controlled using simple interfaces such as a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Telerobots controlled via the Internet mostly use such a simple interface. A useful extension is often a joystick , which allows more intuitive control for 2D robot movements.
Head-mounted displays are usually used for telepresence robots. It is then controlled either via a joystick or by moving the head.
Areas of application
With the exception of the Apollo program , telerobotic space probes were used in all space research programs. Most telescopes are also controlled telerobotically. Notable examples are the Mars Exploration Rover and the Hubble Space Telescope . The International Space Station ISS has two telerobotically controlled robotic arms called Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulators .
Marine Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are used to explore the deep sea and repair oil rigs .
Another large area of telerobotics is medicine. Robot-assisted systems are mainly used in surgery .
Telerobotic robotic arms are also used in the processing of radioactive substances.
swell
literature
- Manuel Ferre, Martin Buss, Rafael Aracil, Claudio Melchiorri, Carlos Balaguer (eds.): Advances in Telerobotics . Springer, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-540-71363-8 ( online in the Google book search).
- Thomas B. Sheridan: Telerobotics, Automation, and Human Supervisory Control . The MIT Press, Cambridge 1992, ISBN 0-262-19316-7 ( online in Google book search).
- Ken Goldberg, Roger F. Malina, Denise Penrose: Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet . The MIT Press, Cambridge 2001, ISBN 0-262-57154-4 ( online in Google book search).
- Patrick Rößler: Telepresent movement and haptic interaction in vast, distant environments . KIT Scientific Publishing, Karlsruhe 2009, ISBN 978-3-86644-346-4 .
Web links
- NASA Space Telerobotics Program. ( Memento from April 8, 2011 in the web archive archive.today ) March 1998. (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Richard Held: Telepresence . In: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America . tape 92 , no. 4 , October 1992, p. 2458 , doi : 10.1121 / 1.404500 (English).
- ↑ Rodney Brooks: The Arrival of the Cyborgs . In: Financial Times Germany . February 25, 2002 ( online [accessed March 24, 2010]).
- ↑ Ronald G. Julian, Timothy R. Anderson: Robotic Telepresence: Applications of Human Controlled Robots in Air Force Maintenance . Ed .: Defense Technical Information Center. 1998 (English, abstract [accessed March 24, 2010]).
- ^ PP Pott, H.-P. Scharf, MLR Schwarz: Today's State of the Art of surgical Robotics . In: Journal of Computer Aided Surgery . tape 10 , no. 2 , 2005, p. 101-132 , PMID 16298921 (English).