Methods for UGV teleoperation with high latency communications

Abstract

In this project, we developed and demonstrated complementary UGV control methods for teleoperation with highlatency communications. The methods included latency protection, predictive displays, and supervisory control. Latency protection mitigate against typical types of high-latency teleoperation input errors. The Phase I latency protection methods included filtering the joysick commands, limiting the commanded rates as a function of latency, and emergency stop when the operator commands and OCU navigation video were out of phase. Predictive displays indicate to the operator the current state of the UGV, i.e., the state after all of the latent commands are executed (latent commands are those that have been issued but whose effects do not yet appear in the OCU display). We implemented two alternative predictive display methods: augmented reality using iconography to indicate the effects of the latent commands, and virtual reality which warps the image to show the view to reflect the latent commands. Supervisory control allows the operator to specify simple, short-range objectives that the UGV can accomplish on its own, without advanced sensing, path planning, etc. We implemented an effective "point-and-go" supervisory control system. We successfully implemented and demonstrated these methods on a Packbot© 510 EOD robot (made by iRobot Corporation), currently being used in-theater.