NRI: Collaborative Research: Cooperative Control of Humanoid Robots for Remote Operations in Nuclear Environments

随着使能技术的成熟，类人机器人将找到许多实际应用，如家庭中的个人助理，救灾中的第一反应者，以及预先部署的太空探索资产。该项目将提高美国宇航局的人形机器人Valkyrie的能力，以取代人手，在核设施中常见的现有科学手套箱中进行安全和规避风险的操作。该项目的动机是，人类监督机器人理想的肮脏，枯燥和危险的任务在今天使用的数千个手套箱中广泛存在。人形机器人的风险规避控制框架将为机器人和机器人操作领域做出重大贡献;由此产生的技术也将显著提高人类的安全性，操作的准确性以及与高后果材料处理应用相关的成本效益。该项目的成功完成不仅将提高类人机器人实际应用的技术准备程度，还将为该领域贡献新知识，包括如何将人类命令转化为安全的机器人控制方法。该项目将创建程序和工具，以培训具有新技能的劳动力，包括远程操作和界面设计。该项目的研究目标将为受限机器人操作和人机交互领域做出新的贡献。具体来说，该项目将（1）验证一个人类监督的控制框架，用于NASA人形机器人Valkyrie的风险规避和直观操作，执行科学手套箱中的常见任务，如将物体推到和滑动到排放口;（2）发展基于感知的机器人操作的理论和实践，并设计新颖的解决方案来处理不确定性，将运动/力量规划与高水平的人类输入和环境智能相结合，以稳健地执行实际任务;（3）引入并完善操作原则，并评估在核操作中部署人形机器人的安全意义;（4）通过在逐个任务的基础上优化性能，为人形机器人在核清理中的适用性开发新的范例。该项目的成果将为解决硬件/软件协同设计、控制理论、机器人技术和人机交互等交叉领域的多学科挑战创造新的方法。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As the enabling technologies mature, humanoid robots will find numerous practical applications, as personal assistants in the home, first-responders in disaster relief, and as pre-deployed space exploration assets. This project will advance the capabilities of NASA's humanoid robot, Valkyrie, to replace human hands for safe and risk-averse operations in existing science gloveboxes commonly found in nuclear facilities. The project is motivated by the fact that the dirty, dull and dangerous tasks ideal for human-supervised robots are extensively found in thousands of gloveboxes being used today. The risk-averse control framework for humanoid robots will provide significant contributions to robotics and robot manipulation fields; the resulting technologies will also significantly improve the safety of humans, accuracy of operations, and cost-effectiveness associated with operations in high-consequence material handling applications. Successful completion of this project will not only progress the technological readiness of humanoids for practical applications but also will contribute new knowledge to the field including how to translate human commands to safe robot control methods. The project will create programs and tools to train a workforce with new skills including teleoperation and interface design. The research goals of the project will make novel contributions to the fields of constrained robot manipulation and human-robot interaction. Specifically, this project will (1) validate a human-supervised control framework for the risk-averse and intuitive operation of NASA's humanoid robot, Valkyrie, performing common tasks found in science gloveboxes such as pushing and sliding objects to the discharge ports; (2) develop theory and practice for perception based robot manipulation and design novel solutions to handle uncertainty, blend motion/force planning with high-level human input and ambient intelligence to robustly execute practical tasks; (3) introduce and refine the operational principles and evaluate safety significance of deploying humanoids in nuclear operations; (4) develop new paradigms for applicability of humanoid robots in nuclear clean-up by optimizing performance on a task-by-task basis. The project outcomes will create new approaches in addressing multidisciplinary challenges at the intersection of hardware/software co-design, control theory, robotics, and human-robot interaction.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.