Analysis of cognitive skill in a water discharge activity for firefighting robots

Teleoperated robots are expected to perform tasks in unexpected disaster sites, which have become increasingly common in recent years. However, only few teleoperated robots are used for such purposes owing to their poor usability compared to the handling of such tasks by humans. Further, human-machine interfaces (HMI) used in teleoperated robots are closely related to human skills. Firefighting activities require cognitive skill to make appropriate decisions. In extinguishing a fire or attenuating a leaked combustible gas, firefighting activities consist of two tasks: reconnaissance and water discharge to stop the fire or attenuate the leaked combustible gas, and these tasks possess different properties. In this study, we compared the cognitive skill of ten firefighters (five novices and five experts) in attenuating the leaked combustible gas, the latter of the said two tasks, using a teleoperated robot at a fire department. The experimental results indicated that experts were more multifaceted in their evaluation of the attenuation of combustible gas as compared to novices. In addition, as this result related to firefighter decision-making mechanisms, we were motivated to improve the HMI of firefighting teleoperated robots.

Collaborative Robotic Assistant Platform for Endonasal Surgery: Preliminary In-Vitro Trials

Endonasal surgery is a minimally invasive approach for the removal of pituitary tumors (sarcomas). In this type of procedure, the surgeon has to complete the surgical maneuvers for sarcoma resection with extreme precision, as there are many vital structures in this area. Therefore, the use of robots for this type of intervention could increase the success of the intervention by providing accurate movements. Research has focused on the development of teleoperated robots to handle a surgical instrument, including the use of virtual fixtures to delimit the working area. This paper aims to go a step further with a platform that includes a teleoperated robot and an autonomous robot dedicated to secondary tasks. In this way, the aim is to reduce the surgeon’s workload so that he can concentrate on his main task. Thus, the article focuses on the description and implementation of a navigator that coordinates both robots via a force/position control. Finally, both the navigation and control scheme were validated by in-vitro tests.

Conceptual design of force reflection control for teleoperated bone surgery

Bilateral control of teleoperated robots still poses a challenge, especially if environment properties vary over a large degree. Most currently available systems do not provide force feedback and consequently surgeons still have to estimate contact forces predominantly visually. During drilling or milling in bone surgery, visual estimation is virtually impossible due to hardly any deformations. However, the force progression contains important complimentary information for the surgeon. Therefore, a concept for a force-reflecting controller for drilling or milling during teleoperated bone surgery was developed and tested on a one degree of freedom (DOF) test setup. First, the desired behavior and control architectures were derived based on the context of bone surgery. The resulting controller combines three control architectures in a switching controller, depending on the tool actuation and environment properties. Experimental results with a 1-DOF test setup showed the desired control and switching behavior, while remaining stable. Therefore, the developed control concept seems promising for teleoperated bone surgery.

Reliability of ROS Networked Mobile Robots

When working remotely with mobile robotics, a reliable wireless communication network becomes essential, especially in large operating regions. As most teleoperated robots rely on standard Wi-Fi communication, network behavior has a crucial effect on autonomous robot control. The main goal of this research is to measure and diagnose the system reliability, roaming issues, and bottlenecks of such data transmission. To study these significant factors, two measurement scenarios were conducted. Measurements consist of two Wi-Fi access points (AP) and a TurtleBot II robot used in two different system set-up configurations. In the first configuration, two APs are connected in bridge mode (LAN connection) and in the second configuration the APs are connected in WDS bridge (Wireless Data Distribution) mode. This article presents the results of Robot Operating System (ROS) IEEE 802.11 network measurements in roaming mode, in wireless bridge mode, and in an extended coverage area employed in WDS mode. Results of data transmission measurements, configurations, and evaluation of the entire system are also presented. All the measurements utilize the Open Cloud Robotic Platform (OpenCRP)1 an open-source cloud robotics ecosystem based on service-oriented PaaS architecture using the Ubuntu Linux operating system.

A Preliminary Study to Investigate the Sensemaking Process of UAV Reports by Operators after Periods of Disconnect for Threat Assessment

Teleoperated robots have been used to minimize human presence and interaction in dangerous or difficult areas or to enhance human capabilities. One of the challenges that still needs investigation is human-robot communication regarding making decisions based on extracted information. As such, the purpose of this research is to address issues of decision making after communication disconnections through interface design by focusing on improving sensemaking. Analyzing the effects of interface design in a UAV threat assessment scenario is ideal to examine not only the sensemaking process but also how that process defines decision making in an environment where efficient decision making and low clutter displays are needed. The data from this study will serve determine elements of an optimal interface for information assimilation. Twenty participants were recruited to complete a series of sixteen threat assessment decisions with different interface designs, varying amounts of information and layouts of information. It was observed that level of detailed information had a significant effect on the subjective trust and decision selected and display layout had a significant effect on the time taken to complete a decision.