Human machine interaction via the transfer of power and information signals

Abstract

Robot manipulators are designed to perform tasks which would otherwise be executed by a human operator. No manipulator can even approach the speed and accuracy with which humans execute these tasks. But manipulators have the capability to exceed human ability in one particular area; strength. Through any reasonable observation and experience, the human's ability to perform a variety of physical tasks is limited not by his1 intelligence, but by his physical strength. If, in the appropriate environment, we can more closely integrate the mechanical power of a machine with intellectually driven human hand under the supervisory control of the human's intellect, we will then have a system which is superior to a loosely-integrated combination of a human and his fully automated robot as in the present day robotic systems. We must therefore develop a fundamental approach to the problem of this "extending " human mechanical power in certain environments. "Extenders " will be a class of robots worn by humans to increase human mechanical ability, while the wearer's intellect remains the central intelligent control system for manipulating the extender. The human body, in physical contact with the extender, exchanges information si~als and Dower with the extender.