Re-expression of manual expertise through semi-automatic control of a teleoperated system
作者: Erwann Landais, Nasser Rezzoug, Vincent Padois
分类: cs.RO
发布日期: 2024-07-23
备注: 15th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE 2024), Jul 2024, Nice, France
DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005012
💡 一句话要点
提出一种半自动遥操作控制方法，用于化学品操作中的专家技能复现
🎯 匹配领域: 支柱一：机器人控制 (Robot Control)
关键词: 遥操作 机器人控制 人机交互 化学品操作 半自动控制
📋 核心要点
- 化学品操作任务依赖人工，存在安全隐患和人体工学问题，需要远程机器人系统。
- 提出分离路径和轨迹控制的半自动遥操作方法，用户可控安全路径上的轨迹。
- 实验表明该方法在视觉性能和舒适性上与手动操作相当，但完成时间较长。
📝 摘要（中文）
在化学工业中，寻找新型溶剂对于环境保护至关重要，但该领域仍然与人工和视觉检查任务紧密相关。由于操作的化学品可能具有危险性（如CMR物质），因此需要使用机械防护屏障（通风柜、手套箱）。这可能导致长期姿势不适。使用远程控制机器人来复现所需的小瓶运动可以缓解这些姿势约束。然而，这种系统的采用将取决于其转录用户专业知识的能力。必须特别注意系统的直观性：执行动作的透明度、感知反馈的相关性，以及与用户命令相关的运动的保真度。本文提出将运动控制分为两部分：路径控制（空间姿势集）和与该路径相关的轨迹控制（速度、沿路径的行进方向），以保证任务的手动特性能够安全且快速地表达。用户可以通过选择通用安全路径类型并实时调整该路径上的轨迹来部分控制机器人的运动。通过实验验证了该方法的可行性，实验结果表明，该方法在视觉性能、使用舒适性和界面可接受性方面表现良好，但完成时间显著高于手动操作。
🔬 方法详解
问题定义：化学工业中的化学品操作任务，特别是溶剂筛选，高度依赖于人工操作和视觉检查。由于化学品可能具有毒性或腐蚀性，操作人员需要在通风柜或手套箱等防护设备中进行操作，长期下来容易导致姿势不适。现有的远程操作机器人系统难以完全复现专家的人工操作技能，尤其是在运动的灵活性和响应速度方面存在挑战。
核心思路：将机器人的运动控制分解为两个部分：路径控制和轨迹控制。路径控制定义了机器人运动的空间姿势序列，而轨迹控制则定义了机器人沿该路径运动的速度和方向。用户可以通过选择预定义的、安全的路径类型，并实时调整机器人在该路径上的运动轨迹，从而实现对机器人的半自动控制。这种方法旨在在保证安全性的前提下，尽可能地保留人工操作的灵活性和响应速度。
技术框架：该系统主要包含以下几个模块：1) 用户界面：允许用户选择预定义的路径类型，并实时调整机器人在该路径上的运动轨迹。2) 机器人控制模块：根据用户输入的路径和轨迹信息，控制机器人的运动。3) 视觉反馈模块：通过摄像头或其他传感器，向用户提供操作环境的视觉反馈。4) 安全监控模块：监控机器人的运动状态，并在出现异常情况时及时停止机器人的运动。
关键创新：该方法的核心创新在于将运动控制分解为路径控制和轨迹控制，并允许用户实时调整机器人在预定义路径上的运动轨迹。这种方法在保证安全性的前提下，尽可能地保留了人工操作的灵活性和响应速度。与传统的远程操作机器人系统相比，该方法更加直观和易于使用。
关键设计：实验中，预定义的路径类型包括直线、圆弧等基本几何形状。用户可以通过调整机器人在该路径上的速度和方向，来实现对小瓶的旋转、倾斜等操作。视觉反馈模块使用Logitech Brio 4K摄像头，向用户提供高清晰度的操作环境图像。实验中，使用了Franka-Emika Panda机器人。
📊 实验亮点
实验结果表明，使用该方法进行小瓶阅读任务时，用户的视觉性能、使用舒适性和界面可接受性与手动操作相当。虽然任务完成时间显著高于手动操作，但该研究验证了半自动遥操作控制在复杂操作任务中的可行性，为后续研究提供了有价值的参考。
🎯 应用场景
该研究成果可应用于化学、生物等领域的危险品操作，例如有毒试剂的筛选、放射性物质的处理等。通过远程操作机器人，可以有效降低操作人员的安全风险，并改善其工作环境。此外，该方法还可以应用于其他需要精细操作的领域，例如医疗手术、精密制造等，具有广阔的应用前景。
📄 摘要（原文）
While the search for new solvents in the chemical industry is of uttermost importance with respect to environmental considerations, this domain remains strongly tied to highly manual and visual inspection tasks by human experts. As the manipulated chemicals may imply a critical danger (CMR substances), mechanical protection barrier are used (fume hoods, gloveboxes). This, in turn, can induce postural discomfort in the long term. Carrying out this task using a remotely controlled robot to reproduce the desired vial motions would alleviate these postural constraints. Nevertheless, the adoption of such a system will depend on its ability to transcribe the users' expertise. Particular attention must be paid to the intuitiveness of the system : transparency of the actions performed, relevance of the perceptual feedback, etc. and, in particular, the fidelity of the movements performed in relation to the user's commands. However, the extent of the rotational movements to be generated and the task interactivity complicates the problem both from the point of view of the motor capacities of industrial robots and for the transparency/responsiveness of the control.To tackle the problen of guaranteeing a secure and reactive expression of the manual characteristics of this task, we propose to separate the control of movement into two parts: control of the path (set of spatial poses) and of the trajectories associated with this path (speed, direction of travel along the path). The user can then partially control the robot's movements, by choosing the type of generic, secure path and modulating the trajectory performed on this path in real time. Although this drastically limits the possibilities for interaction, we assume that this teleoperated system can enable this type of observation task to be carried out as effectively as for direct manipulation. This hypothesis was tested through an experiment in which a reading task, less dangerous but with similar characteristics to the application task, had to be performed using different variants of trajectory modulation. This experiment consisted in reading words printed on four white capsules (dimensions 6 x 12 mm) placed into cylindrical vials ( dimensions 16 mm x 70 mm). Four randomly selected vials were tested by each variant. Firstly, users had to perform the task via direct handling, then under conditions secured by a protection barrier. Users were then invited to perform the task using different trajectory modulation variants (modulation and passive viewing of a pre-recorded video, modulation of the trajectory of a Franka-Emika Panda robot performing the task in real time in front of a monocular Logitech Brio 4K camera). After each trial of a variant, users evaluate different aspects of this variant (manual and visual performance, ease of use, acceptability of the interface) through a questionnaire. During the trials, various objective criteria are also measured (number and nature of interaction with the interface, time and degree of success in the task). This experiment was carried out with 37 subjects (age : 27$\pm$5, 20 females). The data recorded showed that the proportion of successes, as well as the subjects' perceptions of visual performance, comfort of use and acceptability of the interface, were similar and high for all the variants. This suggests that this task is indeed achievable via the proposed interface. However, data also showed that average task completion times when using the trajectory modulation variants were significantly higher than handling by hand variants, which implies that the proposed remote semi-automatic control procedure fails to achieve satisfactory performance regarding execution time. An interface allowing more reactive manipulation of the vial's movements seems necessary, and will be tested in a future experiment.