Robot Dexterity

Shape-Based Remote Manipulation (SBRM)

Any teleoperation occurring over a network is subject to inevitable communication delays. Such delays can make the teleoperation experience less intuitive and less realistic. The goal of our Shape-Based Remote Manipulation (SBRM) is to utilize models to overcome communication delays. Rather than waiting for an avatar to relay back information about its world, the operator can interact with a physics-based model of the avatar’s environment. By interacting with models, rather than waiting for feedback from the physical world, we are able to provide real-time feedback to the operator.

Toby and Rohan are getting testbed ready.

Toby is in the operating seat!

Toby’s avatar against Rohan: Rock paper scissors

Effects of communication delays

Delays in telecommunications can result in jitter, leading to prolonged and inaccurate completion of simple tasks. A bidirectional teleoperation testbed was created to test delays in a teleoperation system. This testbed contains two robots each equipped with 2 degrees of freedom-an operator robot and an avatar robot. The operator robot serves as the interface through which a human can interact with the system. The avatar robot transmits the human’s presence to the remote environment while simultaneously projecting the environment to the human. Additionally, the system incorporates visualization of the avatar’s environment to simulate viewing the system from a camera. By adding lag to this testbed, we can further understand the fundamentals of delay in teleoperations.  

Alyssa testing 2DoF setup