Extended reality (XR) work-cell for safe human-centered robotics research

用于安全以人为本的机器人研究的扩展现实 (XR) 工作单元

• 批准号: RTI-2023-00418
• 负责人: Najjaran, Homayoun
• 金额: $ 5.06万
• 依托单位: University of Victoria
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=760245
• 关键词: Extended; reality; XR; work; cell

Human-centered robotics has emerged as one the most influential research topics in the robotics community and automation industry for it is an integral aspect of safe functioning of all robotic technologies in real-world scenarios. This project aims to create a design, development and evaluation work-cell for human-centered autonomous robot research with emphasis on safety. It will enable simulated and experimental research on human-robot collaboration (HRC), effective multi-modal human-machine communication and collaborative robots (co-bots). Synergy between robots and humans in a shared work-cell provides a compelling solution to the challenges faced by many industries including agile manufacturing and highly customizable production. In a typical HRC scenario, robots are meant to carry out dangerous, non-ergonomic and repetitive tasks while the human partners concentrate on cognitive decision making and nonconventional tasks leading to improved throughput and quality. A heterogenous setup of humans and robots working collaboratively requires real-time communication between all agents. From a practical standpoint, an important research question is what combination of, and to what extent, different communication means among human and robot agents can provide a safe and continuous operation in the noisy, crowded and highly dynamic environments. This means that the discovery of effective multi-modal communications with the natural fluency and seamless team dynamics of HRC will lead to a dramatic paradigm shift in broad industries such as automation and manufacturing. The aim of the proposed research is to investigate promising communication means (e.g., visual, gestural and body language) and protocols (i.e., both real and virtual) for coordination of tasks achieved through multiple input channels (modes) that are natural to human operators in industrial settings. The robot work-cell will also strengthen current industry collaborations in the areas of manufacturing, social and industrial robotics, and autonomous vehicles, while fostering new partnerships beyond the existing ones. The applicant and his co-applicants need the equipment to spearhead their human-centered robotics research initiative. Access to the robot work-cell will accelerate research progress in this time-sensitive area, help students disseminate verifiable results in their theses and publications, improve the technology readiness of the prototypes developed, and facilitate innovations in industrial automation and cyber-physical systems. To that end, the proposed work-cell will provide a free-access and equitable HQP training platform for not only over 50 graduate students and postdocs from a diverse group in terms of gender, background, and academic preparedness and discipline but also external users who can connect to the work-cell remotely and benefit from the setup through its simulation, data generation, and virtual reality capabilities.

以人为中心的机器人技术已经成为机器人界和自动化行业最有影响力的研究课题之一，因为它是所有机器人技术在现实世界中安全运行的一个组成部分。该项目旨在为以人为中心的自主机器人研究创建一个设计，开发和评估工作单元，强调安全性。它将实现对人机协作（HRC）、有效的多模态人机通信和协作机器人（co-bots）的模拟和实验研究。机器人和人类在共享工作单元中的协同作用为许多行业所面临的挑战提供了一个引人注目的解决方案，包括敏捷制造和高度可定制的生产。在典型的HRC场景中，机器人旨在执行危险的、非人体工程学的和重复性的任务，而人类伙伴则专注于认知决策和非传统任务，从而提高吞吐量和质量。人类和机器人协同工作的异构设置需要所有代理之间的实时通信。从实用的角度来看，一个重要的研究问题是什么样的组合，并在何种程度上，不同的通信手段之间的人类和机器人代理可以提供一个安全和连续的操作在嘈杂，拥挤和高度动态的环境。这意味着，通过HRC的自然流畅性和无缝团队动态发现有效的多模式通信，将导致自动化和制造业等广泛行业的巨大范式转变。拟议研究的目的是调查有前途的通信手段（例如，视觉、手势和身体语言）和协议（即，真实的和虚拟的），用于协调通过多个输入通道（模式）实现的任务，这些输入通道（模式）对于工业环境中的人类操作员来说是自然的。机器人工作单元还将加强制造业、社会和工业机器人以及自动驾驶汽车领域的现有行业合作，同时在现有合作伙伴关系之外建立新的合作伙伴关系。申请人及其共同申请人需要这些设备来推动他们以人为本的机器人研究计划。进入机器人工作单元将加速这一时间敏感领域的研究进展，帮助学生在论文和出版物中传播可验证的结果，提高所开发原型的技术准备程度，并促进工业自动化和网络物理系统的创新。为此，拟议的工作单元将提供一个免费访问和公平的HQP培训平台，不仅为来自不同性别，背景和学术准备和学科的50多名研究生和博士后提供培训，而且还为可以远程连接到工作单元并通过其模拟，数据生成和虚拟现实功能从设置中受益的外部用户提供培训平台。