Ground-Remote Telerobotics Technologies

Technologies for ground-remote telerobotics have been developed to support ground-based control of space-based robots. The User Macro Interface (UMI) was developed to interactively generate sequences of commands to be sent for execution by a remote robot control system. The Modular Telerobot Task Execution System (MOTES) was developed as a remote site system to execute command sequences. An architecture for ground control which supports ground and space based operator control stations or just a ground based operator control station is shown in the figure.

Communication time delay between the local site operator control station (OCS), where the operator resides, and the remote site robot control system is a significant factor for ground control telerobotics; a round-trip delay of several seconds or more is expected. The time delay precludes control modes which require closed loop control between the local and remote sites. The ground control system utilizes Supervised Autonomy where commands are generated at the local site and sent for autonomous execution at the remote site. Teleoperation and shared control are also supported from the space based OCS from which there is little time delay to the control system.

Command sequences are generated through interaction in a graphical environment, e.g., selecting motion destinations, and through the use of a graphical user interface. The operator interface of the ground based OCS has two primary parts: perception and manipulation. Perception provides an interactive means for modeling the remote site scene. Manipulation provides interactive task description, simulation, editing, and execution. The commands or command sequences can be sent for immediate execution or iteratively saved, simulated, and modified before being sent for execution on the real robot.

More details can be found in:

Paul G. Backes and Kam S. Tso. "UMI: An Interactive Supervisory and Shared Control System for Telerobotics." In Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages 1096-1101, Cincinnati, Ohio, May, 1990.

Paul G. Backes, John Beahan and Bruce Bon. "Interactive Command Building and Sequencing for Supervised Autonomy." In Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages 795-801, Atlanta, Georgia, May 1993.

Point of Contact:
Paul G. Backes,
Mail Stop 198-219
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109
818-354-3850
Paul.G.Backes@jpl.nasa.gov

Telerobotics Program page

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Maintained by: Dave Lavery
Last updated: May 10, 1996