OPTIMIZING THE CAMERA AND POSITIONING SYSTEM FOR TELEROBOTICWORKSITE VIEWING

A NECESSARY COMPONENT OF TELE-OPERATED ROBOTIC MANIPULATION IS VISUAL FEEDBACK. THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO PROVIDE AN IMPROVED REMOTE VIEWING CAPABILITY BY SIMPLY MOVING THE OPTICAL ELEMENTS OF THE CAMERA SYSTEM RATHER THAN ORIENTING THE ENTIRE CAMERA. THE ELIMINATION OF MECHANICAL COMPONENTSAND MOTION SENSING DEVICES SHOULD INCREASE RELIABILITY WHILE SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCING SIZE, WEIGHT, AND MAINTENANCE COSTS--ALL KEY ELEMENTS TO FUTURE NASA IMPLEMENTATION OF TELEROBOTIC VIEWING SYSTEMS. IN THE PHASE I EFFORT, A MINIATURE, OMNI-DIRECTIONAL, PROTOTYPICAL CAMERA WAS PRODUCED. CONSIDERABLE REDUCTIONS IN SIZE AND WEIGHT WERE REALIZED IN THIS FEASIBILITY DEMONSTRATION. A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS WAS PERFORMED TO DEVELOP A MAPPING ALGORITHM TO CONVERT A FISHEYE IMAGE INTO AN UNDISTORTED OBJECT PLANE REPRESENTATION FOR USE WITH DIGITAL ELECTRONICS. THE RESULTING ALGORITHM ALLOWS PAN, TILT, AND ZOOM FUNCTIONS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED WITH A FIXED CAMERA AND WAS VALIDATED EXPERIMENTALLY IN PHASE I. AN ELECTRONIC HARDWARE CONCEPT WAS ALSO CREATED.