Immersive methods for long distance teleoperation with time delay

The use of robotic assistance has become extremely important for many reasons. To be remarked is the fact that a robot may provide us with access to remote sites and therefore a detailed knowledge on certain environments. This information could be used to recreate and simulate specific scenarios on which astronauts may be afterwards trained, being this aspect of a vital importance in human exploration. Another example would be the spacecraft landing. It is a critical phase on which a tele-operated probe would give fundamental information for a future manned mission. Just remark at this time the success of the ESA probe “Huygens” landing on Titan. From the beginning of the entry on Titan until the batteries died only lasted for less than two hours, but the information gathered within this interval was proved to be of an incalculable value. Due to all this, the development of reliable immersive teleoperation user interfaces is claimed to be one of the previous and more important milestones for any future space human exploration mission. Space applications imply long distances, so time delays such that remote control may become unfeasible. Predictive motion displays (PMD) stand as one of the possible solutions to overcome this constraint. These displays show the movement of the simulated teleoperator without any time delay while the real teleoperator would simply follow the simulated one after the delay. A further step is represented by the “Telepresence”, in which the operator would be actually immersed into the remote site. The telepresence is based on the provision of enough natural sensory information (images, voice, haptics...) so that the operator would feel as if located in the simulated scenario. This field represents a fascinating subject, whose applications have been proved to be vital for the future of human space exploration. Therefore, this thesis aims to build a teleoperated system that may be used to evaluate and quantify the effect of immersion and time delay on work performances. A set of teleoperation tests will be developed in order to identify those tasks that may be improved with the assistance of telepresence. The tests will also pursue to search the limits of the given schemes (direct teleoperation with time delay, with PMD and with telepresence) and will support both space and ground operations (capable of simulating different scenarios, e.g. teleoperation from a space station orbiting a planet, or from a stationary camp on Moon).Validerat; 20101217 (root