Interface-Aware Intelligence for Robot Teleoperation and Autonomy

人类向机器人系统发出控制信号的背景范围从遥操作到指令再到共享自主性，以及从空间探索到辅助机器人的广泛领域。无论是通过公开的身体运动还是来自肌肉或大脑的电信号，人类向机器人平台发出控制信号都需要对接口进行物理驱动。人类想要的真实信号与从接口接收的真实信号之间的偏差-在幅度、方向或时序上-可能会在整个机器人自主系统中产生涟漪效应。这一奖项将证明界面感知机器人智能的必要性和实用性。这项研究将探索人类控制信号的物理来源--他们的物理能力、接口驱动机制、信号传输限制--如何对人-机器人团队的协同和成功施加人为上限。这一限制影响了任何机器人系统的遥操作和自主性，但在辅助机器人领域可以强烈感受到这一点，在辅助机器人领域，人类运动障碍和可访问的接口限制可能会导致严重的操作限制。作为该项目的一部分，当地一家博物馆的年度外展演示将对K-12学生进行辅助机器人方面的教育。此外，本科生将留在暑期实习，以获得机器人方面的高级研究经验。由特定人类操作的特定界面的特征在控制信号上留下了印记，可以从控制信号中挖掘出与人类控制命令的智能解释相关的信息。在这个项目中，将专门设计新的机器人智能范例，目的是补充控制界面和人类操作员的已知和特征化组合发出的控制信号的特征，或补偿控制信号的降级。为此，将设计一个界面感知框架，提供从人类到机器人控制系统的输入路径的更完整模型，并在此框架内开发从人类输入到机器人控制空间的用户定义地图的界面用法解释和技术。将进行广泛的用户研究，以激励和评估界面感知机器人智能在两个显著应用领域内的功效和影响，这两个领域受到界面激活和映射的显著影响：共享自主性，固定在由运动障碍人士操作的物理辅助机器人上，以及人与机器人之间的指令，固定在机械臂行为演示上。这项工作具有通过挖掘和建模已经印在人类发出的控制信号上的信息来创新人机交互的潜力，并通过这样做实现更高水平的人机共生。该项目由跨部门的机器人基础研究计划支持，该计划由工程总监(ENG)和计算机和信息科学与工程(CEISE)共同管理和资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Humans issue control signals to robot systems in contexts ranging from teleoperation to instruction to shared autonomy, and in domains as wide as space exploration to assistive robotics. Whether via overt body movement or electrical signals from the muscles or brain, for a human to issue a control signal to a robot platform requires physical actuation of an interface. Deviations between the true signal intended by the human and that received from the interface—in magnitude, direction, or timing—can have rippling effects throughout a robotics autonomy system. This award will demonstrate both the need for and utility of interface-aware robotic intelligence. The research will explore how the physical source of the human control signal—their physical capabilities, the interface actuation mechanism, signal transmission limitations, could impose an artificial upper limit on the human-robot team synergy and success. This limitation impacts the teleoperation and autonomy of any robot system, but it can be felt acutely within the domain of assistive robotics, where human motor impairment and accessible interface limitations can result in dramatic operational constraints. As part of the project, annual outreach demos at a local museum will educate K-12 students on assistive robotics. Additionally, undergraduate students will be retained on summer internships for advanced research experience in robotics.The characteristics of a particular interface, operated by a specific human, leave an imprint on the control signal that can be mined for information pertinent to the intelligent interpretation of the human’s control command. In this project, novel robot intelligence paradigms will be designed that aim specifically to complement characteristics of, or compensate for degradations in, control signals issued from a known and characterized combination of control interface and human operator. To do so, a framework for interface-awareness that offers a more complete model of the input pathway from human to robot control system will be designed, and within this framework interface-usage interpretations of and techniques to elicit user-defined maps from human input to robot control space will be developed. Extensive user studies will be performed both to motivate and evaluate the efficacy and impact of interface-aware robotic intelligence within two salient application domains dramatically impacted by the choice of interface activation and mapping: shared autonomy, anchored to physically assistive robots operated by persons with motor impairments, and human-to-robot instruction, anchored to robotic arm behavior demonstration. This work holds the potential to innovate human-machine interactions by mining and modeling information already imprinted upon human-issued control signals, and in doing so achieve a higher level of human-machine symbiosis.This project is supported by the cross-directorate Foundational Research in Robotics program, jointly managed and funded by the Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).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.