NRI: Human-Robot Interface for Extraterrestrial Construction

外星建造，即在月球或行星体表面建造结构，是一项基本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，但在中期内，人类在环机器人系统是更容易实现的外星建筑的中间目标。这一国家机器人计划3.0(NRI)奖支持基础研究，通过提供稳定、透明和准确的远程机器人控制的人-机器人交互，利用宇航员在以人为中心的机器人系统中的智慧和能力进行外星建筑。该项目的发现对外星建造具有重要意义，这对人类在地球外，特别是在月球上的长期存在至关重要。虚拟机器人系统设计和空间任务模拟也将被用于STEM推广计划，通过教授年轻学生关于太空探索的知识来激励他们。这项研究将推进宇航员-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延/视觉模糊如何相互作用来影响遥操作任务的性能，如何感知感知反馈显示尺寸的调制，以及如何最有效地映射传感数据以增强态势感知和改进遥操作性能。第一个任务记录了用于外星建造的空间遥操作中的人类、任务、技术和环境特征。第二个任务是开发用于外星建造的空间遥操作的虚拟机器人仿真模型。第三个任务开发和测试支持外星建筑作业的感觉辅助技术，确定潜伏期和深度模糊对遥操作性能的影响，并探索新的感觉辅助反馈形式以提高任务性能。最后，研究小组测试了在越来越逼真的机器人场景中对外星建筑的机器人模拟的感官辅助，这些场景复制了改变的环境的各个方面，并操纵代表人类-远程机器人建筑系统特定挑战的变量。通过加深对可变和动态延迟环境以及视觉歧义的人-机器人界面设计的理解，可以为未来涉及人在环中的外星机器人操作的一些空间工作领域开发出通用的界面设计策略。包括前宇航员和具有空间遥控机器人操作经验的行业合作伙伴的专业人员在内的一组空间工程师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被纳入STEM推广计划，向年轻学生传授空间和探索知识，该项目的研究方法和结果将被整合到跨部门和跨学科的“面向未来空间工作领域的人-机器人接口”课程中。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。

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.