Controlling robots via the Internet

Professor Sandra Hirche will talk on "Human-oriented telerobotic control over the Internet" at the ANU in Canberra, 16 February 2010:

SYSTEMS AND CONTROL SERIES

Human-oriented telerobotic control over the Internet

Prof. Sandra Hirche (Technical University of Munich (TUM))

DATE: 2010-02-16
TIME: 11:00:00 - 12:00:00
LOCATION: RSISE Seminar Room, ground floor, building 115, cnr. North and Daley Roads, ANU

ABSTRACT:
Packet switched communication networks, as e.g. the Internet, are very attractive for the transmission of haptic information between the operator and the teleoperator side in a telerobotic systems. As a result of the haptic coupling a global control loop is closed through the packet switched communication network with the human and the environment being part of it. Without further control measures the intrinsic communication unreliabilities render the haptic telepresence system unstable. Similar challenges arise in the closely related field of networked control systems~(NCS), however, in haptic telepresence systems extended stabilization methods are required due to the largely unknown human/environment dynamics. Human factors play a major role in the evaluation of the control performance in terms of transparency.

This talk focuses on the stability and transparency of haptic telepresence systems in packet switched communication networks. Conjointly control theoretic, communication related, and human haptic perception aspects are considered. Based on the passivity framework methods to stabilize the system with time delay, packet loss and haptic data compression are introduced. The transparency for all the considered control approaches is evaluated by an extended transparency measure taking into account human haptic perception. The obtained results are validated in experimental user studies.

BIO:
Sandra HIRCHE (*1974) is professor and director of the Information-Oriented Control Laboratory associated with the Institute of Automatic Control Engineering in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany. She received the diploma engineering degree in mechanical engineering and transport systems in 2002 from the Technical University Berlin, Germany, and the Doctor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering in 2005 from the Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany. Being awarded a postdoctoral research fellowship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) she has been a PostDoc at Fujita Lab, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan from 2005 to 2007. Her research interests include networked and distributed control systems, cooperative control, human-robot interaction, multimodal telepresence systems, and perception-oriented control.