Haptic Telerobotic Control Systems: Analysis and Design for High-Fidelity Interaction

触觉反馈为操作机器（如飞机、挖掘机或加拿大臂或火星探测器等机器人）的人提供了一种触摸物体的感觉，他们实际上不是用手触摸，而是由机器操纵。为了重现闭路电视为视觉重现的触觉，触觉反馈通过用户界面（操纵杆）向人类操作员的手上施加力，从而产生触摸物体的错觉。这是一种有用的能力，因为触觉交互是人类理解环境和影响环境变化的最基本方式。触觉反馈使机器的人类操作员能够更轻柔、更安全、更可靠、更精确地处理物体。如果“机器”是一个手术或康复机器人，而被操纵的“物体”是病人的软组织或残疾肢体，而外科医生或治疗师充当机器的“操作员”，这一点至关重要。该提案涉及提高触觉交互的质量（“保真度”或“透明度”），这对于被称为“远程操作系统”的机器的各种操作和传感任务的安全和成功执行至关重要。在触觉远程操作系统中，人类操作员通过用户界面控制机器人，以便处理和“感觉”可能位于远程的物体（相当于上述类比中的广播电视）。当人类必须与危险环境（例如，海底或有毒领域）或难以进入/远程环境（例如，外层空间）进行交互时，远程操作系统是有用的机器。用于监测油气管道和检查海底结构的海底远程操作消除了人工潜水员的高成本和生命风险。核废料处理或排雷的远程操作将对生命的风险降至最低。空间远程操作最大限度地减少了设备组装、服务和维修所需的昂贵载人任务的数量。在这样的应用中，双侧遥操作（即，对操作者具有触觉反馈）优于单侧遥操作（即，没有触觉反馈）。尽管研究成果具有广泛的适用性，但在本研究中，我们将重点关注外科和康复的远程操作系统。我们提出的外科远程操作研究使外科医生能够在有触觉反馈的情况下对跳动的心脏进行手术，这样他/她就不会对心脏组织施加太大的力。远程手术可以促进家庭远程康复，作为以医院为基础的身体残疾患者康复的替代方案。在这种情况下，我们提出的研究将使一个治疗师在几个病人之间分时，这样治疗师就可以将他/她的注意力从一个病人转移到另一个病人身上，因为病人家里的远程操作机器人学会了在没有治疗师的情况下安全地继续治疗。拟议的研究还将回答两个或更多的人或人手如何通过触觉合作来控制同一台机器，从而更容易或更优地执行给定的任务。例如，我们将研究安装在电动轮椅上的辅助机械臂如何通过由残疾人的两只手握住的两个操纵杆进行协作远程操作，这可能具有有限但互补的运动。虽然在许多应用领域都很有用，但拟议的研究将导致重要的生物医学工程技术。除了突破性的创新外，这项研究还将通过培养学生在先进触觉技术领域的发展，包括机器人技术，人机交互和系统控制，从而使加拿大受益。

Haptic feedback provides the humans who operate machines (e.g., planes, excavators, or robots such as the Canadarm or Mars rovers) with a sense of touching objects they are not actually touching by hand but are manipulating by the machines. To recreate for the sense of touch what closed-circuit TV recreates for the sense of sight, haptic feedback produces the illusion of touching the objects by applying forces to the human operator hands through user interfaces (joysticks). This is a useful capability because haptic interaction is the human’s most basic way to understanding an environment and effecting change in it. Haptic feedback allows the human operator of the machine to handle objects more gently, safely, reliably, and precisely. This is of paramount importance if the “machine” is a surgical or rehabilitation robot and the manipulated “object” is the soft tissue or disabled limb of a patient while a surgeon or therapist acts as the machine “operator”. This proposal concerns enhancing the quality (“fidelity” or “transparency”) of haptic interaction, which is critical to the safety and successful execution of various manipulation and sensing tasks, for machines called “teleoperation systems”. In a haptic teleoperation system, a human operator controls a robot via a user interface in order to handle and “feel” objects potentially located at a remote distance (equivalent to broadcast TV in the above analogy). Teleoperation systems are useful machines when a human has to interact with a hazardous environment (e.g., undersea or toxic fields) or an inaccessible/remote environment (e.g., outer space). Undersea teleoperation for monitoring oil and gas pipelines and the inspection of subsea structures eliminates the high cost of human divers and the risk to life. Teleoperation for nuclear waste handling or mine clearance minimizes the risk to life. Space teleoperation minimizes the number of expensive manned missions required for equipment assembly, servicing and repair. In such applications, bilateral teleoperation (i.e., with haptic feedback for the operator) is preferable over unilateral teleoperation (i.e., without haptic feedback). In the proposed research, we will focus on teleoperation systems for surgery and rehabilitation although the research outcomes are applicable broadly. Our proposed research on surgical teleoperation enables surgery on the beating heart in the presence of haptic feedback for the surgeon so that he/she does not apply too much force on the heart tissue. Teleoperation can facilitate in-home telerehabilitation as an alternative to hospital-based rehabilitation of physically disabled patients. In this context, our proposed research will enable time-sharing of one therapist among several patients so that the therapist can shift his/her attention from one patient to another as teleoperated robots at the patients’ homes learn to continue the therapies safely in the absence of the therapist. The proposed research will also answer how two or more humans or human hands can haptically collaborate in controlling the same machine such that execution of a given task takes place more easily or optimally. For instance, we will investigate how an assistive robotic arm mounted on a power wheelchair can be collaboratively teleoperated from two joysticks held by a disabled person’s two hands, which may have limited but complementary motions. While useful in many application areas, the proposed research leads to important enabling biomedical engineering technologies. In addition to the groundbreaking innovations, this research will benefit Canada by training students in areas pertaining to the development of advanced haptic technologies including robotics, human-machine interaction, and systems control.