|
The principal motivation for the PeLoTe
research project has been to investigate and suggest innovative and
groundbreaking technology concepts for integration of human actors with mobile
robots leading to:
- Creation of a next-generation hybrid
telepresence/telematic systems
- Development of personal assistance
and navigation systems enabling a human to share a remote-end task with a
robot
- Research of novel concepts in cooperative recovery
of presence
- Validation of the developed
solutions via experiments
(See project
documentation)
The specific core outputs of the PeLoTe
research effort are seen namely in:
- Design of a brand-new concept for hybrid
telematic systems through integration of robotic and human entities
at the remote-end of a telematic task
- Building (tele)presence
from observations by the both kinds of entities (humans and robots) and sharing it with other parts of the
system in a hybrid telematic task
- Development of a common
reference model enabling to share the gathered knowledge between robots and
humans, building the (tele)presence via navigation and environment mapping, personal
navigation system and personal assitance system
- Methods for cooperative
recovery of presence and planning in hybrid telematic tasks
- Implementation of the PeLoTe
experimental test-bed, validation and evaluation of investigated concepts, evaluation test-bed for measuring presence
in hybrid systems
- Solutions with possible impacts into applications and continuation of the research stream
(See project
documentation)
The previous project outputs/achievements
are represented by research and development of methodologies, experimental
technology as well as by achievements in practical verification and evaluation
of the concepts by experiments. A brief list of results contains in particular:
- Deep state-of-the-art analysis,
research, design and verification of novel
concept for next-generation hybrid telematic systems combining humans and
robots at the remote-end
- Design, development and experimental testing of a specialized
equipment enabling a human to join a hybrid telematic system what includes:
- Personal navigation system (PeNa) based
on localization-from-structure principle including development of upgraded SLAM
methods for human entity map building and localization. The system does not
require any environmental infrastructure except of partial knowledge of its’
shape and structure.
- Personal asistance system (PAS)
integrating the PeNa system, GUI interface and other communication equipment
providing the desired technological support for a human to join the hybrid
telematic tasks
- Cooperative localization system (CoLo)
offers a technology to callibrate the mobile entities’ position at certain
locations (either absolutely or mutually). The system is based on either
deployable or on-board beacons (landmarks), which allow build up a support
structure for real-life environments. Designed for the final experiment
mainly.
- Design of the PeLoTe
communication concepts and development of PeLoTe server for information exchange in heterogenous
telematic systems as here. Specific design was followed for the final
experimental scenario in a search-and-rescue field.
- Investigation, design and
development specific man-machine-man
graphical interfaces. The used concepts of the GUI tool reflect carefully
elaborated approaches to sharing
information and knowledge from diverse origin (and of different nature) –
either from living entities (humans) and/or form sensors and robots. Specific
design hereunder was fosused onto search-and-rescue scenario and respects
target use of the GUIs incorporating PAS (the remote-end human entity) and the
teleoperator(s) in a telematic task.
- Design and development of the experimental robot entities, investigation of possible sensors, control, e.g.
hardware-admissible-level interface (HAL), etc. performed. Unique sensors - photonic mixed
device (PMD)
camera was introduced and multiple versions/designs were investigated (wheeled
Merlin, tracked Merlin, ER1). The robot optimal design was guided by
requirements of the final experiment.
- Information and knowledge base
investigation and design lead to proposal of a standard for rescue maps (SRM) comprising current state-of-the-art
and experiences gained and requirements identified in design of
hybrid telematic system for search and rescue aplication. The SRM design
responses to potential final user requirements in search and rescue.
- Application of cooperation ad coordination principles
in hybrid telematic system - specifically solving the cooperation task between
diverse types of entities (hunams and robots). The achievements incorporate
general framework from knowledge sharing to cooperative activity planning.
Novel cooperative planning/scheduling algorithm for multiple entity
coordination has been researched and developed. Results also applied in PeLoTe
information exchange concepts and the CoLo syste design. The target results
were mainly motivated by requirements of the chosen secenarion for the final
experiment.
- Creating brand-new concepts of presence in hybrid telematic environments. The
novel and non-biased approach to crossover of the non-living and living
entities brought up an extended approach to building presence in hybrid teams
of RE and HE. The result hereunder incorporates description of the presence
understanding as well as proposal for its’s measurement is these systems. The
PeLoTe system concept and the system itself can serve as a testebed for investigation of presence in hybrid environments.
(See project
documentation)
Experimental
verification and end-user testing has
given approval of the initial assumption and gave raise of other achievements
in the presence area (e.g. the concept of presence in hybrid systems, testbed
for presence evaluation, etc.). Moreover, the end-user testing - conducted in
multiple-rounds process - identified clearly major features for design in
further re-use of the PeLoTe principles.
(See project
documentation)
|
