Evaluating Haptic Feedback for Vehicle Safety in Field Robotics

EPSRC：约书亚布朗先生：EP/S515188/1遥操作是机器人技术中的一个领域，涉及远程机器人的实时控制。这样的系统可以是移动的或固定基地的、空中的、陆地的或海上的，并且有时结合一些自主功能以从人类操作员接管平凡的或高度复杂的任务。遥控机器人为用户提供了对预编程和全自主机器人的最大可能程度的控制和监督，但其整体效果受到操作员的注意力和能力的限制。这就否定了现代机器人最重要的优点之一--消除人为错误。这个项目的目的是评估我自己设计和制造的一种新设备，它能够通过触觉反馈，特别是振动，将机器人状态的信息传达给人类操作员。例如，诸如松散地形或陡峭斜坡的危险可能无法经由相机馈送很好地报告给操作员，并且盲点在真实的世界系统中是不可避免的。我博士学位的重点是这种新型控制设备的设计及其在机器人车辆更安全，更不易出错的机器人遥操作中的应用。在这方面的现有研究仍然有限，我的工作需要通过仔细控制振动，模仿机器人经历的运动和力量报告危险的approoach还没有做过。我博士学位的前两年一直关注这种新型触觉设备的设计，建造和基于实验室的评估。我的第三年，我希望进行这个项目，旨在评估这个设备的效用在移动的机器人遥操作任务在地面（越野，粗糙的地形）和水生领域。这个项目将使我能够接触到大型越野和水下机器人以及操作和测试它们的设施。没有现有的研究，考虑应用触觉反馈的水下机器人控制。这些在英国并不存在，这意味着我最初的研究方案依赖于非常小的模型机器人和计算机模拟。虽然这些都是有用的工具，能够访问真实的世界系统可在加拿大通过我建议的导师将增加了很大的价值，我的博士研究和结果，我能够从中获得。我在加拿大的拟议项目将分两个阶段进行。第一阶段将利用我建议的主管在移动的机器人技术和人类感知方面的独特专业知识，进行实验，以确定振动触觉反馈如何最好地用于表示或再现移动的机器人在真实的世界中可能遇到的危险情况。然后，这些结果将非常迅速地通知第二次研究的参数，使用大型越野和水上机器人完成任务，根据设计，将涉及导航某些环境危害，如松散的地形，障碍物，非常不平坦的地面，强水流等触觉反馈的价值，帮助人类操作员导航这些危险将被评估。

EPSRC : Mr Joshua Brown : EP/S515188/1Teleoperation is a field in robotics concerned with the real-time control of remotely acting robots. Such systems may be mobile or fixed-base, aerial, terrestrial or marine, and sometimes incorporate some autonomous functionality to take over either mundane or highly complex tasks from the human operator. Teleoperated robots offer users the maximum possible degree of control and oversight over pre-programmed and fully-autonomous robots, but their overall effectiveness is limited by the attentiveness and capability of the operator. This negates one of the most significant benefits of modern robotics - the elimination of human error.This project aims to evaluate a novel device of my own design and making which is able to communicate information about the robot's state to a human operator via haptic feedback, specifically vibration. For example, hazards such as loose terrain or a steep incline may not be well reported to the operator via a camera feed, and blind spots are inevitable in real world systems. The focus of my PhD is the design of this novel control device and its application in making robot teleoperation safer for the robotic vehicle and less prone to errors. Existing research in this area remains limited and the apporoach my work takes to report hazards via carefully controlled vibrations that mimic the movement and forces experienced by a robot has not been done before.The first two years of my PhD have been concerned with the design, construction and lab-based evaluation of this novel haptic device. My third year, in which I hope to undertake this project, aims to evaluate this device's utility in mobile robot teleoperation tasks in the ground (off-road, rough terrain) and aquatic domains. This project will give me access to large-scale off-road and underwater robots and the facilities to operate and test them. There is no existing research that considers applying haptic feedback to underwater robot control. These do not exist in the UK, meaning my original research proposal relied on very small model robots and computer simulations. Whilst these are useful tools, being able to access the real world systems available in Canada via my proposed supervisor would add a great deal of value to my PhD research and the results I am able to obtain from it.My proposed project in Canada will progress in two phases. The first phase will take advantage of my proposed supervisor's unique combination of expertise in mobile robotics and human perception, to conduct experiments to determine how vibrating haptic feedback can best be used to represent or recreate hazardous situations a mobile robot might encounter in real world use. These results will then very quickly inform the parameters for a second study, using the large scale off-road and aquatic robots to complete tasks that, by design, will involve navigating certain environmental hazards such as loose terrain, obstacles, very uneven ground, strong water currents, etc. The value of haptic feedback in helping the human operators to navigate these hazards will be assessed.