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

触觉反馈为操作机器(例如，飞机、挖掘机或机器人，如Canadarm或火星漫游者)的人提供了一种触摸对象的感觉，他们实际上并不是用手触摸的，而是由机器操纵的。为了重建触觉，就像闭路电视为视觉重建的那样，触觉反馈通过用户界面(操纵杆)向操作员的手施加力，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并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温和、安全、可靠和准确地处理对象。如果“机器”是手术或康复机器人，而被操纵的“物体”是病人的软组织或残肢，而外科医生或治疗师充当机器的“操作者”，这一点是至关重要的。**这项建议涉及提高触觉交互的质量(“保真度”或“透明度”)，这对于被称为“遥操作系统”的机器的各种操纵和传感任务的安全和成功执行至关重要。在触觉遥操作系统中，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处的物体(相当于上面类比中的广播电视)。当人类必须与危险环境(例如，海底或有毒领域)或难以接近/偏远的环境(例如，外层空间)进行交互时，遥操作系统是有用的机器。用于监测石油和天然气管道和检查海底结构的海底遥控操作消除了潜水员的高昂成本和生命风险。用于核废料处理或扫雷的远程操作将对生命的风险降至最低。空间遥操作可最大限度地减少设备组装、维修和维修所需的昂贵载人飞行次数。在这样的应用中，双边遥操作(即操作者有触觉反馈)比单侧遥操作(即没有触觉反馈)更可取。**在拟议的研究中，我们将重点关注用于手术和康复的遥操作系统，尽管研究结果具有广泛的适用性。我们提出的关于外科遥操作的研究使外科医生能够在存在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。远程操作可以促进家庭远程康复，作为基于医院的肢体残疾患者康复的替代方案。在这种情况下，我们提议的研究将允许在几个患者之间共享一名治疗师，以便当患者家中的远程操作机器人学习在治疗师不在的情况下安全地继续治疗时，治疗师可以将他/她的注意力从一个患者转移到另一个患者。这项拟议的研究还将回答两个或更多人或人手如何通过触觉协作控制同一台机器，从而使给定任务的执行更容易或更优化。例如，我们将研究如何通过残疾人双手握住的两个操纵杆来协作遥控安装在电动轮椅上的辅助机械臂，这两个操纵杆可能具有有限但互补的运动。虽然在许多应用领域很有用，但拟议的研究导致了重要的使能生物医学工程技术。除了突破性的创新，这项研究还将通过培训学生在与先进触觉技术的发展相关的领域，包括机器人、人机交互和系统控制，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.