DURIP Equipment for Performance Evaluation of Semi-Autonomous Robots for Full-scale Engineered Environments
Abstract
This project proposes equipment that allows the performance evaluation of semi-autonomous robots for full-scale engineered environments. The mission of autonomous robots inevitably fails at some point, so interchangeable autonomy and teleoperation, or semi-autonomy, is becoming the key technology after real-time teleoperation with the speedup of wireless communications has become possible. However, there is currently no full-scale facility that allows the performance evaluation of semi-autonomous capability of robots since large, suited space is needed in addition to the full equipment. The Principal Investigator has such space, which is the formerNuclear Reactor Building, at the University of Virginia. This 22,000-sqft building completed in 1957 housed a pool reactor, was used for nuclear research and education, and remains at its original configuration though it was decommissioned in 2005. It is an adequate test environment when the performance evaluation is aimed for inspection, maintenance and disaster response since this was thereal nuclear reactor building. The proposed equipment consists of multiple items but is adequate for the DURIP program since they comprise a #system# that is used for a common research purpose, which is the performance evaluation of semi-autonomous robots for full-scale engineered environments. The items include (1) real-time communication and computation modules, which enable real-time teleoperation of semi-autonomous systems from remote locations, (2) environment control modules for the Nuclear Reactor Space of the building, including an airflow generator, heat generator, and smoke generator, (3) teleoperation modules including the virtual reality CAVE system, (4) performance evaluators including motion capture systems and field sensors for wind, temperature and smoke measurement and (5) custom manufacturing modules.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 08, 2024
- Source ID
- N000142412195
Entities
People
- Tomonari Furukawa
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Virginia