Telerobotics

O.Mavropoulos
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Engineering, Oulu, Finland

Abstract

In this paper, the issue of Telerobotics and their future is discussed. This includes the definition of Telerobotics , the ways that wireless technologies interact with Telerobotics , the use of Telerobotics in space, army , health , rescues , disability support and entertainment aspects along with the future exelixis of Telerobotics in the upcoming years regarding all the refered aspects. The development rythm of technology is extremely high, day per day new tasks to be solved come to the surface forcing technology to struggle for their solution. In this era, wireless technology is in the “heart” of the researches about new technological achievements, regarding almost all the surrounding devices. On the other hand, robots and automated systems have really gone into our lives , helping us and trying to do things better. A combination of these would be for sure inevitable. This is Telerobotics.

Keywords: Telerobotics, technology, exelixis, wireless , automated,combination

1Introduction

Telerobotics is the outcome of the combination of two originally seperate areas, Teleoperation and Robotics. Teleoperation , which is the principle of Telerobotics’ function, is the operation that allows humans to interact with robots and control robotic machinery from a distance that is absolutely safe for them to operate. Most space exploration has been conducted with telerobotic space probes and most space-based astronomy has been conducted with telerobotic telescopes. The basic idea of Teleoperation and Telepresence (which we will discuss later) is the wireless access to the robot which can be possible by establishing wireless "tethered" connections such as Wi/Fi or Bluetooth. In this page we will discuss about the ways to access the robot,the Telerobotics’ use in life and the future of this field in the upcoming years.

2 Use of Telerobotics

Thanks to Telerobotics, many issues that needed precise handling, distant presence (telepresence) due to dangerous environment or hostile territory, emergency aid as well as providing the illusion of being inside a real situation such as gaming can be achieved. In this section we will analyze these issues in detail.

2.1 Space issues

Since the beginning of space exploration, top technology was used to ensure safety and therefore success of the space missions. Nowadays technology has given us the ability to explore a wider part of our universe without the need of human presence., which would be something very dangerous for the man himself. This is space Telerobotics. Although Telerobotics in space applications was widely used even from the beginning of space missions (with the exception of the Apollo program most space exploration has been conducted with telerobotic space probes and telescopes) [2], in our days Telerobots’ shape and use has changed. Humanoid robots such as the Robonaut are in charge of helping astronauts with both their in-spaceship and outer-spaceshipoccupations. Current and future plans of Telerobotics include the Mars exploration rovers (MER) and the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Robonaut

2.2 Army issues

For some years now, armies from around the world begin to use for their operations Telerobotswhich replace the human presence in conditions that would be deadly, such as mine discovery. By replacing human hands with Telerobotic manipulator arms such as the “Raptor Force Feedback Manipulator” humans achieve security. Regarding the air force field, many UAV’s ( Un Armed Vehicles) are equipped with the latest technology of FPV (Flight Per Vision) which mainly is the exact definition of Telepresence: Being somewhere at real time using a virtual machine. FPV uses a fully rotateable camera handled by the user. in military use, this provides the capability of patrolling over the sky conflict areas

The predator Military UAV

2.3 Health issues

Recently, surgical robots have evolved into telerobotic surgical platforms that permit surgeons to operate on patients from remote location using robotic instruments.

The surgeon and the telerobot work in a master-slave relationship. Telerobots have been specifically designed to overcome all four of pitfalls of laparoscopy. They maintain a stable camera platform, use instruments that articulate at the end to stimulate the movements of surgeon’s hand , use 3D imaging systems and permit the surgeons to perform complex,advanced laparoscopic operations while comfortably seated in an ergonomically correct position. Telerobotic surgical systems have only recently achievd limited approval for clinical use. At the present time, telerobotic surgical systems offer a limited selection of instruments and bulky configurations that impede many specific surgical procedures.

The da Vinci robotic surgical system consists of three parts:A the surgeon’s console. B an electronics tower holding video equipment and C the robotic arms

2.4 Rescues issues

Hazardous natural situations like typhoons and earthquakes or explosions result into many people being trapped under destroyed houses. Space shuttle outer repairs sometimes lead to astronauts being lost in space. Many other occasions of people getting trapped and needing help in some places that humans cannot reach are solved through telerobotic rescues. [4] Telerobots arrive at the scene in almost any terrain , transmit the images of their cameras and send an exact location signal back to their masters, leading to the survivor’s rescue. They can even rescue them themselves. Regarding space rescues, special telerobots are sent or even embedded inside the space shuttle, using a robotic arm to grab hold the astronaut and proceed to the necessary actions. In fact, rescues not only concern human beings but also historical objects and figures being lost and are unreachable for some reasons, such as the Titanic. At the depth of the wreckage of Titanic, no other means could reach it apart from the telerobot ROV, which explored it successfully bringing in the daylight again objects lost for years and which constitute useful information about it’s history.

Telerobotic rescuer Titanic’s telerobotic exploration

2.5 Disability support issues

Physical disabilities make it difficult or sometimes

impossible for individuals to perform several simple job related

tasks such as pressing a button to operate a machine, opening a

door, moving light objects etc. While considering employment,

the true potential can be enhanced by technology that augments

the human performance. New developments in haptic interfaces

can allow a greater number of severely disabled individuals to

access their environment and to enter the workforce.

Several disabilities such as Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral

Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis and Cerebrovascular Accidents

present symptoms including limited movements or

maneuverability, reduction in strength, spasticity, tremor, and a

wide range of dexterity problems.Therefore, if haptic feedback can be incorporated into the telerobotics system, these users can benefit from the enhanced interface from using touch and feel interactions.

Rewalk

2.6 Entertainment issues

In the field of entertainment, telerobotics is contributing mainly in remote control models where uses the FPV (Flight Per Vision or else First Person View) that we analyzed before. Small cameras, fully rotateable are mounted on the R/C models transmitting the image to the master. Video transmitters typically operate at a power level between 200 mW and 1500 mW. The most common frequencies used for video transmission are 900 MHz, 1.2 GHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5.8 GHz. One of the most marvelous results of thelerobotics in entertainment is the Ar Drone, which is a flying machine fully controlled by Apple’siPhone, iPad or an Android phon The Ar Drone has a HD camera transmitting it’s vision and recording it as long as many other capabilities.

The Ar Drone

3 Wireless technology

.

Important issues concerning communication channels, random propagation delays, bandwidth limitations,

fault-tolerance, synchronization, tele-presence, and the stability of the robotic systems involving human operators have all been taken into account in different works across the literature. Most of them consider Internet as the interconnection network between telecontrolled systems and control stations. Most of the existing wireless-controlled robots use a specific (non-standard) radio-modem for communications between control station and robot. But this wireless channel is usually a point-to-point dedicated wireless link which works under good signal quality environments. In IEEE 802.11 networks working in infrastructure mode, the access points (base stations) provide the network connectivity between mobile and wired hosts. WLAN nodes share the medium through a CSMA-CA protocol, so network latency may be significant and dependent of current traffic load. The time-varying conditions of the wireless channel, roaming processes and certain node mobility patterns, may disturb established communications, increasing packet loss ratio and the average delay and jitter, up to intolerant levels for certain kind of multimedia applications. Apart from the Internet and WLAN, telerobots can also be controlled via Bluetooth using technology such as inbuilt Bluetooth Module for wireless communications (e.g Arduino Bluetooth Shield) and last but not least, over Mobile packet data services (e.g. GPRS / EDGE / UMTS / HSDPA). Here are some of the advantages and characteristics of each category.

3.1 Bluetooth technology[3]

• Low power consumption: Its low power consumption is

suitable for mobile operations. For a Rescue Robot which

has to perform search and rescue operations continuously

for hours, it should have components which consume the

minimum power. Devices using Bluetooth low energy

wireless technology are expected to consume a fraction of

the power of classic Bluetooth enabled products. The power

consumption is less than 15mA (xmit).

• Frequency Hopping Technology: Bluetooth uses a radio

technology called frequency-hopping spread spectrum,

which chops up the data being sent and transmits chunks of

it on up to 79 bands (1 MHz each; centered from 2402 to

2480 MHz) in the range 2,400-2,483.5 MHz (allowing for

guard bands). This range is in the globally unlicensed

Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) 2.4 GHz short range radio frequency band. The frequency-hopping

technology of Bluetooth radio waves prevents them from

getting mixed up with other radio waves which are

generally used for communication among Robots.

• Two Way Communication: Bluetooth technology allows

a two way communication between a Robot and its

operator by using a single Bluetooth module on the Robot.

This allows the Rescue Robot to send feedback in terms of

images and videos to its operator.

• Simultaneous Communication with multiple robots:

Bluetooth technology allows the operator to

simultaneously communicate with multiple Robots. A

Bluetooth device can communicate with up to seven

devices in a piconet. This feature can be used in Rescue

Robots where the operator can send a single common

command to multiple Robots instead of sending to each

one of them individually.

• Availability: Nowadays, almost every cell phone and

laptop come with inbuilt Bluetooth module. Therefore,

only one Bluetooth Module per Rescue Robot has to be

bought. The Operator can use the Bluetooth of his cell

phone or laptop to control the rescue Robot. This not only

reduces the cost of buying an extra Bluetooth module but

3.2 Wireless Teleoperation via the World Wide Web

The Internet made convenient and cost-effective

communication between individuals and groups possible.

The World Wide Web (WWW) removed the complex,

and often esoteric, nature of the communication through

an interface which allows even the most novice use; to

communicate in ever more complex ways. With

communication comes the promise of true interaction. By

this, we do not mean interaction through the exchange of

information, but the richer interaction, which comes

through the ability to physically manipulate elements of a

remote environment. [1]

Control architecture of a robot via the World Wide Web

3.3 Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi technology has all the advantages as in Bluetooth technology, but the only prominent difference which Wi-Fi has over

Bluetooth is that Wi-Fi operates at a much faster rate - of

about 11Mbps, whereas Bluetooth operates at a much

slower rate of around 720kbps. This makes Bluetooth too

slow for video transfers.A brilliant example of Wi-Fi use in telerobotics is Ar. Drone that we analyzed before, which creates its own Wi-Fi network anywhere and connects to the iPhone, iPad or Android mobile phone.

3.4 Telerobotics over Mobile packet data services

The best way to describe Telerobotics over Mobile packet data services is to refer to TeMo.TeMo is a tele-operated mobile internet robot, connecting to the internet using Mobile packed data services (e.g. GPRS / EDGE / UMTS / HSDPA). The advantage is virtually unlimited mobility for the robot.

Control architecture of a robot via Mobile packet data services

4Conclusions

The development rythm of technology is extremely high, day per day new tasks to be solved come to the surface forcing technology to struggle for their solution. Telerobotics comfront many problems that a human could not. Thanks to wireless technology, robots can be driven from a distance, transmitting the images they see and performing tasks.Due to the technology’s rapid upgrade,Telerobotics will suffer many changes in the ways humans command the robots and other aspects.This is a field of certain future,with multiple usefulness to many specialties such as the categories we analyzed.

References

[1] B. Dalton, K. Taylor, A Framework for Internet Robotics 99 (7): 1-100, January 1999.IEEE International Conference On Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS): Workshop on Web Robots, Cannada, October 1998.

[2] M. J. Cox, J-E.F. Baruch, Robotic Telescopes: An Interactive ExMbit on the World-Wide Web, 2nd International Conference of the World-Wide Web, USA, October 1994

[3] Bluetooth SIG, ” Compare with other technologies”, last accessed on 6/5/2012

[4] S .Moosavian, H Semsarilar and A. Kalantari, “Design and manufacturing of a mobile rescue robot” ,Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE/RSJ international conference on Intelligent robots and systems,2006 Beijing, China

1Or, better still, try to avoid footnotes altogether. To help yourreaders, avoid using footnotes altogether and include necessary peripheral observations in the text (within parentheses, if you prefer, as in this sentence).