AN ADVANCED GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE AND PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT FOR NUCLEAR TELEROBOTICS

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP AN ADVANCED PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT FOR NUCLEAR TELEROBOTIC SYSTEMS THAT COMBINES POWERFUL GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES, THREE DIMENSIONAL MODELING OF ROBOTS AND WORKCELLS, CAPABILITIES FOR ON-SCREEN GRAPHICAL ROBOT PATH GENERATION, EDITING AND SIMULATION, INTEGRATION OF VIDEO FEEDBACK FROM THE REMOTE SCENE, AND A NOVEL ROBOT PROGRAMMING SCHEME (MACRO PROGRAMMING). MACRO PROGRAMMING REFERS TO THE GENERATION OF COMPLEX ROBOT PROGRAMS THROUGH HIERARCHICAL CALLS TO PRIMITIVES (MACROS) THAT ENCAPSULATE ALL THE REQUIRED MOTIONS NEEDED TO PERFORM GENERIC CLASSES OF OPERATIONS AND WHICH CAN BE PROGRAMMED BY TEACHING ONLU A SMALL NUMBER OF KEY POINTS. THIS APPROACH HAS BEEN ALREADY EXPLORED FOR THE PROGRAMMING OF WELDING ROBOTS IN AEROSPACE APPLICATIONS AND HAS BEEN SHOWN TO SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE THE PRODUCTIVITY AND CONSISTENCY OF MANUAL ROBOT PROGRAMMING. PHASE I TASKS INCLUDE A BRIEF REVIEW OF RELATED WORK, AN ANALYSIS OF APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS, DEVELOPMENT OF A PRELIMINARY SYSTEM DESIGN, AND DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION OF BREADBOARD PROTOTYPES OF THE PLANNED CONCEPTS. IN ADDITION TO THE OVERALL GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE DESIGN AND THE TELEROBOTIC ENHANCEMENTS TO THE PREVIOUSLY DEVELOPED APPROACHES FOR THREE DIMENSIONAL MODELING, DISPLAY, AND ANIMATION OF ROBOTIC DEVICES, GRAPHICAL PATH GENERATION AND EDITING, AND MACRO LEVEL PROGRAMMING, OTHER ISSUES TO BE ADDRESSED DURING THE DESIGN AND PROTOTYPING EFFORT WILL INCLUDE SELECTION OF AN IMPLEMENTATION AND DELIVERY PLATFORM AND STRATEGY, USES OF ALTERNATIVE USER INPUT AND DISPLAY DEVICES, APPROACHES FOR MODEL INTERFACING WITH VIDEO FEEDBACK, AND CALIBRATION TO THE REAL WORLD. ON THE BASIS OF THE ABOVE WORK, NEEDS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT WILL BE IDENTIFIED, AND THE PHASE II EFFORT WILL BE PLANNED.