NRI-Large: Collaborative Research: Multilateral Manipulation by Human-Robot Collaborative Systems

该项目解决了大量重复性操作问题，这些问题对人类来说是重复的，会造成伤害的，或者是危险的，但目前纯自主机器人不可能可靠地实现。这些问题通常需要灵巧、复杂的感知和复杂的物理交互。然而，许多这样的问题可以通过人/机器人协作（HRC）系统可靠地解决，其中一个或多个人类提供所需的感知和适应性，与一个或多个机器人系统一起工作，这些机器人系统以适当的规模提供速度、精度、准确性和灵活性，结合这些互补的能力。该项目侧重于多边操纵，当人类与一个或多个附加控制器（人类或自主代理）合作控制一个或多个机器人操纵器时，就会出现多边操纵。外科手术和制造业中的复杂操作可以从两只以上的手提供的额外自由度中受益，培训通常取决于专家和学徒之间的动手互动。应用的例子包括外科手术，这通常涉及几个医生和助手，以及其他医疗任务，如在床上翻身病人和包扎石膏以约束手。多边操纵也适用于制造业，例如穿线电线或电缆，调整垫圈以获得紧密密封，以及在许多家庭生活中，例如折叠桌布，包装包裹，以及将装满的行李箱拉上拉链，以便将其放入设计异常的头顶飞机隔间中。多边操纵经常出现在具有6个以上自由度的可变形材料或多关节物体上。材料中额外的自由度带来了计算复杂性等挑战，但它们也可以通过冗余来适应较小的不一致，并提供系统阻尼。该项目以外科和制造业的具体应用为指导，推进多边操纵的基础科学。更广泛的影响：多边操作系统有可能改善医疗保健，提高美国制造业的竞争力和产品质量，并为新的家庭服务机器人应用打开大门。该项目将由一个由工业界和医学界专家组成的咨询委员会指导。项目成果将通过年度会议研讨会、集成到常见机器人软件环境（如机器人操作系统（ROS））中的开源软件工具以及研究者的研究和课程网页进行传播，以鼓励将我们的方法整合到许多机构的研究项目和课程中。外展计划、公共实验室参观和少数族裔学生指导将扩大工程领域代表性不足群体的参与。这些活动将鼓励参与STEM活动，并为学生和博士后研究人员提供指导经验。

This project addresses a large space of manipulation problems that are repetitive, injury-causing, or dangerous for humans to perform, yet are currently impossible to reliably achieve with purely autonomous robots. These problems generally require dexterity, complex perception, and complex physical interaction. Yet, many such problems can be reliably addressed with human/robot collaborative (HRC) systems, where one or more humans provide needed perception and adaptability, working with one or more robot systems that provide speed, precision, accuracy, and dexterity at an appropriate scale, combining these complementary capabilities.The project focuses on multilateral manipulation, which arises when a human controls one or more robot manipulators in partnership with one or more additional controllers (humans or autonomous agents). Complex operations in surgery and manufacturing can benefit from the extra degrees of freedom provided by more than two hands, and training often depends on hands-on interaction between expert and apprentice. Example applications include surgical operations, which typically involve several physicians and assistants, and other medical tasks such as turning a patient in bed and wrapping a cast to constrain a hand. Multilateral manipulation also applies in manufacturing, for example for threading wires or cables, aligning gaskets to obtain a tight seal, and in many household situations, such as folding tablecloths, wrapping packages, and zipping overfilled suitcases so they will fit inside diabolically-designed overhead airline compartments. Multilateral manipulation often arises with deformable materials or multi-jointed objects with more than six degrees of freedom (DOF). The extra DOFs in materials introduce challenges such as computational complexity, but they also can accommodate minor inconsistencies through redundancy and provide system damping. This project advances the fundamental science of multilateral manipulation guided by specific applications from surgery and manufacturing.Broader Impacts: Multilateral manipulation systems have the potential to improve healthcare, improve American competitiveness and product quality in manufacturing, and open the door to new service robot applications in the home. The project will be guided by an Advisory Board of experts from industry and medical practice. Project results will be disseminated through yearly conference workshops, open-source software tools integrated into common robotics software environments such as Robot Operating System (ROS), and the investigators' research and course webpages, to encourage integration of our approach into research projects and courses at many institutions. Outreach programs, public lab tours, and mentoring of minority students will broaden participation of underrepresented groups in engineering. These activities will encourage participation in STEM activities and provide student and postdoctoral researchers with mentoring experience.