page 1 remote interaction with machines principal investigator: vincenzo liberatore task number:...

Remote Interaction With Machines

Principal Investigator: Vincenzo LiberatoreTask Number: NAG3-2578

Case Western Reserve UniversitySeptember 18, 2002

NASA SpaceCommunications Symposium

Remote Interaction with Machines

Project Overview

Start date: March 2001Team members: Prof. Vincenzo Liberatore (PI), Prof. Wyatt Newman (co-PI), David Rosas, Adam Covitch


Project OverviewDescription:• Communication between humans and intelligent systems

(e.g., robots)• Software support over IP

Challenges:Decouple control from

Precise environment modelingLong-haul network delaysLack of Quality-of-Service provisioning

SoftwareRemote programmingAdaptive and evolvableSecurity and safety


Project Overview

Virtual AttractorsA “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.

Attractor

Platformorigin

Tool tip

External force

Orientational springs and dampers

Translational springs and dampers


Project Overview

Distributed Control: Agents IP networksSupervisory controlAgent-based: distributed, mobile, adaptive, secureEvolvable software


Project Overview

Distributed Control: Agents


Project Overview

Please Use Arial Font throughout the presentation


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


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)


Milestones - Technical Accomplishments and Schedules

Due Date Milestone Description Tech Accomplishments

1 September 2002 Remote control of the Paradex robot to open valves, turn cranks, and manipulate switches through direct tele-operation, 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-areaEmulator (e.g., 200ms delay)


Funding Issues

NONE

Task Title Placed Here

Future Plans

Event Goals

1 Porting to advanced off-the-shelf 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.

Task Title Placed Here

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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