NRI: Human-Robot Interface for Extraterrestrial Construction

地外建筑，即在月球或行星体表面建造建筑，是一项必要但具有挑战性的任务。虽然预计这种结构最终将由完全自主的建筑系统生产，但在中期，人类在环机器人系统是更容易实现的外星建筑中间目标。这项国家机器人计划3.0 （NRI）奖支持基础研究，通过提供稳定、透明和精确的远程机器人控制，利用以人为中心的机器人系统中宇航员的智能和能力。这个项目的发现对地外建设有着重要的意义，这对于人类在地球以外，特别是月球上的长期存在至关重要。虚拟机器人系统设计和太空任务模拟也将被用于STEM外展计划，通过教授他们太空探索来激励年轻学生。本研究将推进航天员-机器人交互的基础知识，包括人类在空间中的感觉退化和信号时间延迟/视觉模糊如何相互作用影响远程操作任务性能，如何感知感官反馈显示维度的调制，以及如何最有效地映射感知数据以增强态势感知和提高远程操作性能。第一个任务记录了地外建筑空间远程操作的人、任务、技术和环境特征。第二项任务是开发用于地外建筑背景下空间遥操作的虚拟机器人仿真模型。第三项任务是开发和测试支持外星建筑操作的感官辅助技术，确定延迟和深度模糊对远程操作性能的影响，并探索新的感官辅助反馈形式以提高任务性能。最后，研究小组在越来越逼真的机器人场景中测试了机器人模拟外星建筑的感官辅助，这些场景复制了改变环境的各个方面，并操纵变量，这些变量代表了人类远程机器人建筑系统的具体挑战。通过增强对可变和动态延迟环境以及视觉模糊的人机界面设计的理解，可以为未来涉及地外机器人人在环操作的许多空间工作领域开发可推广的界面设计策略。一个由前宇航员和具有空间遥控操作经验的行业合作伙伴的专业人员组成的空间工程师团队将参与该系统的设计和评估。虚拟现实机器人系统设计和空间任务模拟将纳入STEM外展计划，向年轻学生传授空间和探索，项目的研究方法和结果将整合到跨部门和跨学科的“未来空间工作领域的人机界面”课程中。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Extraterrestrial construction, construction of structures on the surface of the Moon or planetary bodies, is an essential but challenging task. While it is anticipated that such structures will eventually be produced by fully autonomous construction systems, a human-in-the-loop robotic system is a more attainable intermediate objective for extraterrestrial construction in the intermediate term. This National Robotics Initiative 3.0 (NRI) award supports fundamental research to leverage the intelligence and capabilities of astronauts in a human-centric robotic system for extraterrestrial construction by providing human-robot interaction that offers stable, transparent, and accurate telerobotic control. The findings from this project have important implications for extraterrestrial construction that are essential for a long-term human presence off-Earth, and particularly on the Moon. Virtual robotic system design and space mission simulations will also be employed in a STEM outreach program to motivate young students by teaching them about space exploration. This research will advance fundamental knowledge of astronaut-robot interaction, including how human sensory degradation in space and signal time delay/visual ambiguity interact to influence teleoperation task performance, how modulations of sensory feedback display dimensions are perceived, and how to most effectively map sensed data to enhance situational awareness and improved teleoperation performance. The first task documents the human, task, technological, and environmental features in space teleoperation for extraterrestrial construction. The second task develops virtual robotic simulation models for space teleoperation in the context of extraterrestrial construction. The third task develops and tests sensory assistance technologies in supporting extraterrestrial construction operations and determines the effects of latency and depth ambiguity on teleoperation performance and explores novel forms of sensory assistance feedback to enhance task performance. Finally, the research team tests sensory assistance in robotic simulation of extraterrestrial construction in increasingly realistic robotic scenarios that replicate aspects of the altered environment and manipulate variables that represent specific challenges for human-telerobotic construction systems. By enhancing the understanding of human-robot interface design for variable and dynamic delay contexts and visual ambiguity, generalizable strategies of interface design can be developed for a number of future space work domains involving human-in-the-loop operation of extraterrestrial robots. A team of space engineers including former astronauts and professionals from industry partners with experience in space telerobotic operations will be engaged in the design and evaluation of the system. Virtual Reality robotic system design and space mission simulation will be incorporated into a STEM outreach program to teach young students about space and exploration and research methods and results of the project will be integrated in an interdepartmental and interdisciplinary "Human-robot Interface for Future Space Work Domains" curriculum.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.