Time-delayed control of telerobotic manipulators

A new method for controlling telerobots over vast distances, where communication propagation delays exist, is presented. Such delays are potentially destabilizing, and certainly degrade the human teleoperator's intuition and performance. Applications include internet-based robotic systems, as well as underwater and space-based systems. A new canonical state space formulation is presented, taking into account the time-varying non-deterministic nature of the control and observation delays. A model of the delay characteristics for the communication medium is also derived. Using the state space framework a general purpose supervisory architecture is developed, allowing the projection of human "intelligence" to the remote environment via the telerobot. Dynamics of the robotic system, as well as the delay characteristics of the communication medium, become part of the design process. The design criteria of transparency, generality, and safety have been met and successfully tested in an experimental setup between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Washington University's Center for Robotics and Automation.