This paper describes a proposed collaborative research effort between the University of Illinois at Chicago and Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. The goal of this research effort is to develop a conceptual framework and an experimental test bed for analysis and design of systems through which a human can have haptic interaction with geographically remote environment. This paper discusses the initial efforts in the development of an experimental test bed for a Haptic Information Communication System (HICS) at Roger Williams University. We present considerations for designing a system capable of remote haptic interaction and present initial conceptual designs of the experimental platform.
The PumaPaint project is a web robot that allows users to create original artwork on the World Wide Web. The site allows control ofa PUMA 760 robot equipped with four paintbrushes, jars ofred, green, blue and yellow paint and white paper attached to a vertical easel. Users must download a java TM interface allowing interactive control ofthe robot. This interface contains two windows showing live camera views ofthe work site and various controlsfor connecting and disconnecting to the robot, viewing the task status and controlling the painting task. The site operatedfrom June 1998 until March, 2000. This paper discusses the author 's experiences in operating the site throughout its lfecycle and discusses future plans for the PumaPaint project.
The PumaPaint project is a web robot that allows users to create original artwork on the World Wide Web. The site allows control of a PUMA 760 robot equipped with four paintbrushes; jars of red, green, blue and yellow paint and white paper attached to an easel. Users must download a JavaTM interface allowing interactive control of the robot. This interface contains two windows showing live camera views of the work site and various controls for connecting and disconnecting to the robot, viewing the task status and controlling the painting task. During the first year of operation of the site, June 3rd, 1998 to June 2nd 1999, approximately 5,000 users produced 390 canvases. This paper presents summary data from one year of operation, discusses the author's experiences in operating the site and examines some of the artwork produced.
At small, undergraduate institutions, resources are scarce and the educational challenges are great. In the area of robotics, the need for physical experimentation to reinforce and validate theoretical concepts is particularly strong, yet the requirements of maintaining a robotics laboratory can be onerous to teaching faculty. Experimental robotics often requires a software sophistication well beyond that which can be expected from undergraduate mechanical engineers, who are most often only required to write simple programs in manufacturer supplied languages. This paper is the third in a series describing an effort to provide an undergraduate robotics research experience in the presence of these challenges. For the last three years we have teamed undergraduate mechanical engineers at Wilkes University with undergraduate computer scientists at University of Wisconsin - La Crosse in a collaborative experimental effort. The goal of this project is to remotely control a PUMA 760 robot located at Wilkes University form an operator station located at UW-La Crosse.
The PumaPaint project is a web robot that allows users to create original artwork on the WWW. The site allows control of a PUMA 760 robot equipped with four paintbrushes, jars of red, green, blue and yellow paint and white paper attached to a vertical easel. Users must download a Java interface allowing interactive control of the robot. This interface contains two windows showing live camera views of the work site and various controls for connecting and disconnecting to the robot, viewing the task status and controlling the painting task. Approximately fifteen hundred unique hosts have downloaded the interface in the first four months of twenty-four hour a day operation beginning June 3, 1998. This paper describes the background of the PumaPaint project, a presentation of hardware and software detail and a discussion of the author's experiences in managing the site over the first four months of operation.
Many current web-based telerobotic interfaces use HyperText Markup Language (HTML) forms to assert user control on a robot. While acceptable for some tasks, a Java interface can provide better client-server interaction. The Puma Paint project is a joint effort between the Department of Computing Sciences at Villanova University and the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Wilkes University. THe project utilizes a Java applet to control a Unimation Puma 1760 robot during the task of painting on a canvas. The interface allows the user to control the paint strokes as well as the pressure of a brush on the canvas and how deep the brush is dipped into a paint jar. To provide immediate feedback, a virtual canvas models the effects of the controls as the artist paints. Live color video feedback is provided, allowing the user to view the actual results of the robot's motions. Unlike the step-at-a-time model of many web forms, the application permits the user to assert interactive control. The greater the complexity of the interaction between the robot and its environment, the greater the need for high quality information presentation to the user. The use of Java allows the sophistication of the user interface to be raised to the level required for satisfactory control. This paper describes the Puma Paint project, including the interface and communications model. It also examines the challenges of using the Internet as the medium of communications and the challenges of encoding free ranging motions for transmission from the client to the robot.
At small, undergraduate institutions, resources are scarce and the educational challenges are great. In the area of robotics, the need for physical experimentation to reinforce and validate theoretical concepts is particularly strong, yet the requirements of maintaining a robotics laboratory can be onerous to teaching faculty. Experimental robotics often requires a software sophistication well beyond that which can be expected from undergraduate mechanical engineers, who are most often only required to write simple programs in manufacturer supplied languages. This paper describes an effort to provide an undergraduate robotics research experience in the presence of these challenges. We have teamed undergraduate mechanical engineers at Wilkes University with undergraduate computer scientists at University of Wisconsin - La Crosse in a collaborative experimental effort. The goal of this project is to remotely control a PUMA 760 robot located at Wilkes University from an operator station located at UW-La Crosse.
This paper presents results from an ongoing collaboration between Wilkes University and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in using the Internet for undergraduate education in robotics. An interface has been developed which allows computer science students at UW-La Crosse to control a robotic manipulator on the Wilkes University campus using images transmitted from Wilkes. The focus of this paper is the interface which monitors the image transmission and the control which the student user has over that transmission. An option in the interface allows the user to crop the image to a desired size in order to focus on a specific feature. Results of experiments performed by the joint undergraduate research groups at both institutions in using this component, as well as the associated educational outcomes, are presented here.
Robotics is a subject which captures the imagination of undergraduate students in many disciplines including Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering. Despite this interest, when the topic is covered at all in an undergraduate program, the critical hands-on component of the course is often omitted. This is due to a number of causes ranging from the complexity of the subject to the availability of equipment. This paper describes a project to allow experimentation with robots through the Internet for the purpose of undergraduate education. An experimental system has been developed which links computer science students at the University of Wisconsin/LaCrosse with robots and Mechanical Engineering Students at Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre PA. Unlike such systems constructed for the purpose of experimentation with time delay for shallow space or undersea manipulation, the focus of this system is the education of undergraduate students. This paper discusses how the educational goals affect the design of this system as well as the selection of tasks. Although there are clear advantages in capital and maintenance costs to sharing equipment, the emphasis here is on the significant educational benefits of this type of system. We show that remote operation leads to an understanding of the complexity and difficulty in specifying robot motions for an uncontrolled environment. This understanding is very difficult to achieve in a simulated or local settings where students have much greater control over the execution environment of the robot. The system was constructed in the summer of 1995, with experiments performed during the fall semester of 1995. Results of the experiments run by the joint undergraduate research groups as well as the associated educational outcomes are presented.
The ATOP Laboratory at JPL is equipped with a two Universal Motor Controllers (UMCs) for real time control calculations. A high degree of software complexity is not practical for implementation on the UMCs due both to memory and speed limitations as well as minimal high level language support. An analysis of the minimum level of functionality required at the remote site of a teleprogramming system was performed. This minimum set of functionality was then implemented using the UMCs for real-time control calculations and a UNIX based computer communicating via a serial I/O line. The combination of the UMCs, the robotic manipulator, and the UNIX machine form the remote site of the teleprogramming system. Because the serial I/O line cannot provide real time communication, the architecture was designed to be insensitive to unpredictable serial I/O transfer times. A demonstration teleprogramming experiment performed in the ATOP Laboratory at JPL is presented. This paper is intended as an aid to researchers wishing to reproduce laboratory results or perform research in teleprogramming and supervisory control.
For Teleoperation in the presence of communication delays, the detection and correction of error conditions is critically important. This paper discusses an extension of the Teleprogramming system for aiding an operator in understanding error conditions. A 'shadow robot' driven by symbolic statements generated at the remote site has been developed. Also developed is an operational mode in which the operator may replay a sequence of motions leading to an error condition. In this mode the input device is constrained to move along the trajectory corresponding to the remote trajectory. The remaining degrees of freedom available to the input device are exploited to relay kinesthetic information to the operator. Experimental results indicating the usefulness of these additions in diagnosing error conditions are presented.
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