Intelligent remote teleoperation

Teleoperation permits humans to manoeuvre robots from a distance. Thus, a human's ability to intelligently manipulate and inspect can be performed in an otherwise inaccessible environment. As a result, teleoperation is gaining acceptance as a cost-effective way to work in remote, often hazardous, environments. However, two significant challenges in designing such systems remain: 1. The communication link between the teleoperator and the telerobot's location is usually bandwidth limited and has time-varying delays. Research shows that even a fraction of a second delay between generating a command and observing the corresponding action can seriously degrade the human operator's intuition. This, in turn, diminishes effectiveness. 2. The human teleoperator must rely on artificial means to gain sensory information from the remote environment. This observation is always incomplete due to current bandwidth and sensor limitations. (Also, it is received in a delayed fashion.) The communication channel also limits the fidelity with which the human teleoperator can intervene in the remote environment. The research presented here addresses human/machine cooperation over a bandwidth-limited communication channel with time-varying delays. This cooperation is crucial for taking advantage of the automation's efficiency and the human operator's intelligence.