Page 1 Remote Interaction With Machines Principal Investigator: Vincenzo Liberatore Task Number: NAG Case Western Reserve University September 18, 2002 NASA Space Communications Symposium

Page 2 Remote Interaction with Machines Project Overview Start date: March 2001 Team members: Prof. Vincenzo Liberatore (PI), Prof. Wyatt Newman (co-PI), David Rosas, Adam Covitch

Page 3 Remote Interaction with Machines Project Overview Description: Communication between humans and intelligent systems (e.g., robots) Software support over IP Challenges: Decouple control from Precise environment modeling Long-haul network delays Lack of Quality-of-Service provisioning Software Remote programming Adaptive and evolvable Security and safety

Page 4 Remote Interaction with Machines Project Overview Virtual Attractors A “gentle” robot informs its supervisor that it can be controlled by specifying the motion of a virtual, soft attractor (illustrated conceptually at right). This interface is low bandwidth and tolerant of variable-quality communications. Attractor Platform origin Tool tip External force Orientational springs and dampers Translational springs and dampers

Page 5 Remote Interaction with Machines Project Overview Distributed Control: Agents IP networks Supervisory control Agent-based: distributed, mobile, adaptive, secure Evolvable software

Page 6 Remote Interaction with Machines Project Overview Distributed Control: Agents

Page 7 Remote Interaction with Machines Project Overview Please Use Arial Font throughout the presentation

Page 8 Remote Interaction with Machines Enterprise Relevance and Impact Enterprise Relevance: At higher TRL, the project will support multiple Nasa missions and the rapid evolution and retargeting of robots available in space: - Use the space environment as a lab to test the fundamental principles of physics, chemistry, and biology. E.g., communication with intelligent systems at IIS experimental facility. - Biological and Physical Research. E.g., communication with small autonomous spacecrafts for biological and physical research. -Commerce. E.g., “rent” IIS equipment time to Earth-bound labs. -Outreach. E.g., selective tele-presence in space. -Support Human Space Flight. E.g., specimen collection. -Explore the Space Frontier. E.g., human-robotic missions: communication human-robot. -Space Science Technology. E.g., human-robotic inhabitation of Mars. -Improve the Human Condition on Earth. E.g., space power plants

Page 9 Remote Interaction with Machines Enterprise Relevance and Impact Impact: Improves on current technology in that it supports Supervisory control: Beyond tele-operation and autonomy Cross-mission communication technology for the interaction between human and intelligent systems Dynamic reconfiguration (creation of new collections of sensors, actuators, transmitters, computers, robots, vehicles, instruments, …, into coordinated, task-oriented teams) Rapid re-programmability (addition of new functionality after hardware deployment) Extensibility (growth through modular incorporation of additional assets) Survivability (automatic reallocation of communications software in response to component failures or aging) Fault tolerance (insensitive to unpredictable communications delays, jitter, drop-outs)

Page 10 Remote Interaction with Machines Milestones - Technical Accomplishments and Schedules Due DateMilestone DescriptionTech Accomplishments 1September 2002Remote control of the Paradex robot to open valves, turn cranks, and manipulate switches through direct tele- operation, straight IP connectivity, and long-delay emulation. Prototype of a distributed agent-based system for the remote interaction of human experts with intelligent systems. Schedule StatusSchedule Deviation Completed on scheduleNONE Wide-area Emulator (e.g., 200ms delay)

Page 11 Remote Interaction with Machines Funding Issues NONE

Page 12 Task Title Placed Here Future Plans EventGoals 1Porting to advanced off-the- shelf agent platform (e.g., Aglets) (December 2002) The capabilities of the current prototype are implemented over Aglets/Java or similar agent support middleware. The benefits of this agent-support platform are identified and reported.

Page 13 Task Title Placed Here Papers and Awards [1] M. L. Ngai, V. Liberatore, and W. S. Newman. An Experiment in Remote Robotics IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2002), [2] V. Liberatore. Scheduling of Network Access for Feedback-based Embedded Systems. Quality of Service over Next-Generation Internet, SPIE ITCom 2002, [3] D. Rosas. Multi-Agent Supervision of Generic Robots. M.S. Thesis, Case Western Reserve University, (Advisors: V. Liberatore and W. S. Newman). [4] D. Rosas, A. Covitch, M. Kose, V. Liberatore, W. S. Newman. Compliant Control and Software Agents for Internet Robotics. (Submitted).