Transcript Task Title Placed Here - Case Western Reserve University

NASA Space
Communications Symposium
Remote Interaction With Machines
Principal Investigator: Vincenzo Liberatore
Task Number: NAG3-2578
Case Western Reserve University
September 18, 2002
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Remote Interaction with Machines
Project Overview
Start date: March 2001
Team members: Prof. Vincenzo Liberatore (PI),
Prof. Wyatt Newman (co-PI), David Rosas, Adam Covitch
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Remote Interaction with Machines
Project Overview
Description:
• Communication between humans and intelligent systems
(e.g., robots)
• Software support over IP
Challenges:
 Decouple
control from
Precise
environment modeling
Long-haul network delays
Lack of Quality-of-Service provisioning
 Software
Remote
programming
Adaptive and evolvable
Security and safety
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Remote Interaction with Machines
Project Overview
Virtual Attractors
A “gentle” robot informs its
supervisor that it can be
controlled by specifying the
motion of a virtual, soft attractor
(illustrated conceptually at right).
This interface is low bandwidth
and tolerant of variable-quality
communications.
Orientational springs
and dampers
Platform
origin
External force
Tool tip
Attractor
Translational springs
and dampers
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Remote Interaction with Machines
Project Overview
Distributed Control: Agents
 IP
networks
 Supervisory control
 Agent-based: distributed, mobile, adaptive, secure
 Evolvable software
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Remote Interaction with Machines
Project Overview
Distributed Control: Agents
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Remote Interaction with Machines
Project Overview
Please Use Arial Font
throughout the
presentation
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Remote Interaction with Machines
Enterprise Relevance and Impact
Enterprise Relevance:
At higher TRL, the project will support multiple Nasa missions and
the rapid evolution and retargeting of robots available in space:
-Use the space environment as a lab to test the fundamental
principles of physics, chemistry, and biology. E.g., communication
with intelligent systems at IIS experimental facility.
-Biological and Physical Research. E.g., communication with small
autonomous spacecrafts for biological and physical research.
-Commerce. E.g., “rent” IIS equipment time to Earth-bound labs.
-Outreach. E.g., selective tele-presence in space.
-Support Human Space Flight. E.g., specimen collection.
-Explore the Space Frontier. E.g., human-robotic missions:
communication human-robot.
-Space Science Technology. E.g., human-robotic inhabitation of
Mars.
-Improve the Human Condition on Earth. E.g., space power plants
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Remote Interaction with Machines
Enterprise Relevance and Impact
Impact: Improves on current technology in that it supports
•Supervisory control: Beyond tele-operation and autonomy
•Cross-mission communication technology for the interaction
between human and intelligent systems
•Dynamic reconfiguration (creation of new collections of sensors,
actuators, transmitters, computers, robots, vehicles, instruments, …,
into coordinated, task-oriented teams)
•Rapid re-programmability (addition of new functionality after
hardware deployment)
•Extensibility (growth through modular incorporation of additional
assets)
•Survivability (automatic reallocation of communications software in
response to component failures or aging)
•Fault tolerance (insensitive to unpredictable communications delays,
jitter, drop-outs)
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Remote Interaction with Machines
Milestones - Technical Accomplishments and Schedules
Due Date
1
Milestone Description
Tech Accomplishments
September 2002 Remote control of the Paradex
robot to open valves, turn
cranks, and manipulate
switches through direct teleoperation, straight IP
connectivity, and long-delay
emulation.
Prototype of a distributed
agent-based system for the
remote interaction of human
experts with intelligent
systems.
Schedule Status
Schedule Deviation
Completed on schedule
NONE
Wide-area
Emulator
(e.g., 200ms
delay)
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Remote Interaction with Machines
Funding Issues
NONE
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Future Plans
1
Event
Goals
Porting to advanced off-theshelf agent platform (e.g.,
Aglets) (December 2002)
The capabilities of the current prototype are
implemented over Aglets/Java or similar agent
support middleware. The benefits of this
agent-support platform are identified and
reported.
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Papers and Awards
[1] M. L. Ngai, V. Liberatore, and W. S. Newman. An Experiment in
Remote Robotics. 2002 IEEE International Conference on
Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2002), 2190-2195.
[2] V. Liberatore. Scheduling of Network Access for Feedback-based
Embedded Systems. Quality of Service over Next-Generation
Internet, SPIE ITCom 2002, 73-82.
[3] D. Rosas. Multi-Agent Supervision of Generic Robots. M.S.
Thesis, Case Western Reserve University, 2002. (Advisors: V.
Liberatore and W. S. Newman).
[4] D. Rosas, A. Covitch, M. Kose, V. Liberatore, W. S. Newman.
Compliant Control and Software Agents for Internet Robotics.
(Submitted).
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