On Applying Virtual Reality to Underwater Robot Tele-Operation and Pilot Training

Lin, Qingping; Kuo, Chengi

doi:10.20870/ijvr.2001.5.1.2670

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…In 1989 Jaron Lanier coined the term Virtual Reality [17] trying to aggregate the different concepts and technologies. During the following years, the scientific community developed technology and algorithms to fulfil his vision and VR has evolved to an extremely useful technology [1,[18][19][20][21][22][23], not limited to teleoperation.…”

Section: Virtual Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nowadays, underwater tasks, like the maintenance of underwater equipment or the deployment and recovery of benthic stations, are addressed using manned submersibles or work-class remote operated vehicles (ROVs) equipped with teleoperated arms. The state-of-the-art in the field includes virtual reality (VR) in the form of a simple control and survey [1] and it is already on the market. Some companies offer inspecting and monitoring ROVs, like Qysea (https://www.qysea.com/products/ fifish-v6/) or Deep Trekker (https://www.deeptrekker.com) while others include arm capability, like ROV innovations (https://www.rovinnovations.com/).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Preliminary Work on a Virtual Reality Interface for the Guidance of Underwater Robots

et al. 2020

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The need for intervention in underwater environments has increased in recent years but there is still a long way to go before AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles) will be able to cope with really challenging missions. Nowadays, the solution adopted is mainly based on remote operated vehicle (ROV) technology. These ROVs are controlled from support vessels by using unnecessarily complex human–robot interfaces (HRI). Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the complexity of these systems to make them easier to use and to reduce the stress on the operator. In this paper, and as part of the TWIN roBOTs for the cooperative underwater intervention missions (TWINBOT) project, we present an HRI (Human-Robot Interface) module which includes virtual reality (VR) technology. In fact, this contribution is an improvement on a preliminary study in this field also carried out, by our laboratory. Hence, having made a concerted effort to improve usability, the HRI system designed for robot control tasks presented in this paper is substantially easier to use. In summary, reliability and feasibility of this HRI module have been demonstrated thanks to the usability tests, which include a very complete pilot study, and guarantee much more friendly and intuitive properties in the final HRI-developed module presented here.

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Section: Virtual Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Work on a Virtual Reality Interface for the Guidance of Underwater Robots

et al. 2020

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“…The difference here is that for a teleoperation scenario live sensor data needs to be fed back into the system to update the virtual environment in order to create a faithful representation of the current environment of the remote system. In combination with simulation of the environment, VR is also used in pilot training of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) for underwater operations (Lin , Kuo, 2015).…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

3d Underwater Mine Modelling in the ¡vamos! Project

Bleier

Almeida

Ferreira

et al. 2019

Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.

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<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The project Viable Alternative Mine Operating System (¡VAMOS!) develops a novel underwater mining technique for extracting inland mineral deposits in flooded open-cut mines. From a floating launch and recovery vessel a remotely-operated underwater mining vehicle with a roadheader cutting machine is deployed. The cut material is transported to the surface via a flexible riser hose. Since there is no direct intervisibility between the operator and the mining machine, the data of the sensor systems can only be perceived via a computer interface. Therefore, part of the efforts in the project focus on enhancing the situational awareness of the operator by providing a 3D model of the mine combined with representations of the mining equipment and sensor data. We present a method how a positioning and navigation system, perception system and mapping system can be used to create a replica of the physical system and mine environment in Virtual Reality (VR) in order to assist remote control. This approach is beneficial because it allows visualizing different sensor information and data in a consistent interface, and enables showing the complete context of the mining site even if only part of the mine is currently observed by surveying equipment. We demonstrate how the system is used during tele-operation and show results achieved during the field trials of the complete system in Silvermines, Ireland.</p>

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“…Tactile feedback can provide important information about the remote environment and substantially improve the efficiency and safety of telerobotics tasks. Remote materials and objects characterisation is a typical application in telerobotics: remote control of mobile robots [5], [6], surgical robotics and training [7], nuclear waste management and remote material handling [8], [9]. An important task often performed in remote hazardous environments is the detection and characterisation of mechanical fractures of objects such as containers, tanks, pipes and other systems used for storing and processing chemical and radioactive waste.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing Tactile and Proximity Sensing for Crack Detection

Palermo

Konstantinova

Althoefer

et al. 2020

2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

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Remote characterisation of the environment during physical robot-environment interaction is an important task commonly accomplished in telerobotics. This paper demonstrates how tactile and proximity sensing can be efficiently used to perform automatic crack detection. A custom-designed integrated tactile and proximity sensor is implemented. It measures the deformation of its body when interacting with the physical environment and distance to the environment's objects with the help of fibre optics. This sensor was used to slide across different surfaces and the data recorded during the experiments was used to detect and classify cracks, bumps and undulations. The proposed method uses machine learning techniques (mean absolute value as feature and random forest as classifier) to detect cracks and determine their width. An average crack detection accuracy of 86.46% and width classification accuracy of 57.30% is achieved. Kruskal-Wallis results (p<0.001) indicate statistically significant differences among results obtained when analysing only force data, only proximity data and both force and proximity data. In contrast to previous techniques, which mainly rely on visual modality, the proposed approach based on optical fibres is suitable for operation in extreme environments, such as nuclear facilities in which nuclear radiation may damage the electronic components of video cameras.

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On Applying Virtual Reality to Underwater Robot Tele-Operation and Pilot Training

Cited by 15 publications

References 23 publications

Preliminary Work on a Virtual Reality Interface for the Guidance of Underwater Robots

Preliminary Work on a Virtual Reality Interface for the Guidance of Underwater Robots

3d Underwater Mine Modelling in the ¡vamos! Project

Implementing Tactile and Proximity Sensing for Crack Detection

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