TELEROBOT COLLISION/OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE BASED ON REAL-TIME PROXIMITY SENSORS

A CRITICAL SUBTECHNOLOGY REQUIRED FOR FUTURE SPACE TELEROBOTS IS A PRACTICAL, SENSOR-BASED REAL TIME OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE SYSTEM CAPABLE OF PREVENTING UNPLANNED COLLISIONS BETWEEN TELEROBOT APPENDAGES AND OBJECTS IN THE MACHINE'S WORKING ENVELOPE. SHARED-CONTROL TECHNIQUES AND FLY-THE-HAND TELEOPERATION TECHNIQUES USED TO CONTROL SUCH DEXTEROUS, KINEMATICALLY-REDUNDANT TELEROBOTS SPECIFY 6 DOF TOOLPOINT COMMANDS, BUT DO NOT DETERMINE MANIPULATOR "POSE", E.G., ELBOW ORIENTATION IN A 7 DOF ARM. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECT AIMS TO PROVE THE CONCEPT OF USING ARM-MOUNTED PROXIMITY SENSORS AND NEW MOTION CONTROL ALGORITHMS TO CONTROL THE POSE OF A KINEMATICALLY-REDUNDANT MANIPULATOR IN SUCH A WAY THAT THE ARM STEERS ITSELF AROUND OBJECTS ENCOUNTERED IN THE WORKSPACE WHILE THE OPERATOR "FLIES THE HAND". ROBOTICS RESEARCH'S ESTABLISHED MECHANISM AND CONTROL TECHNOLOGY IN KINEMATICALLY-REDUNDANT MANIPULATORS SERVES AS A UNIQUELY APPROPRIATE BASIS FOR THIS DEVELOPMENT. MOTION CONTROL ALGORITHMS WILL BE DEMONSTRATED WHICH ARE CAPABLE OF SIMULTANEOUS SINGULARITY/OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE. THIS PROGRAM INCLUDES SENSOR SELECTION AND APPLICATION, ALGORITHM, SOFTWARE AND SYSTEM DEMONSTRATION.