A collaborative multi-site teleoperation over an ISDN

We have developed an advanced infrastructure and technologies for collaborative remote operations, enabling multiple operators with large physical separation to control multiple slave robots in a common environment over the network. Human operators' delayed visual perception arising from communication time delays seriously affects the performance of collaborative multi-site operations and accordingly requires supplementary information locally available to operators irrespective of time delays. Few facilities exist to investigate remote multi-site operations, thus we have built an experimental test bed connecting Tsukuba and Kawasaki in Japan via an integrated services digital network. In particular, an on-line predictive graphics simulator is incorporated to cope with image feedback delays from the remote site. Specifically, exploiting audio-visual features of the simulator, operators can detect a priori the possibility of collision between robots and guide them towards task goal through time delays. To verify the validity of the simulator assisted approach, we have performed a demonstration of prototype plant maintenance in April 2000 between Tsukuba and Kawasaki.