Extended reality (XR) work-cell for safe human-centered robotics research

用于安全以人为本的机器人研究的扩展现实 (XR) 工作单元

• 批准号: RTI-2023-00418
• 负责人: Najjaran, Homayoun
• 金额: $ 5.06万
• 依托单位: University of Victoria
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=760245
• 关键词: Extended; reality; XR; work; cell

Human-centered robotics has emerged as one the most influential research topics in the robotics community and automation industry for it is an integral aspect of safe functioning of all robotic technologies in real-world scenarios. This project aims to create a design, development and evaluation work-cell for human-centered autonomous robot research with emphasis on safety. It will enable simulated and experimental research on human-robot collaboration (HRC), effective multi-modal human-machine communication and collaborative robots (co-bots). Synergy between robots and humans in a shared work-cell provides a compelling solution to the challenges faced by many industries including agile manufacturing and highly customizable production. In a typical HRC scenario, robots are meant to carry out dangerous, non-ergonomic and repetitive tasks while the human partners concentrate on cognitive decision making and nonconventional tasks leading to improved throughput and quality. A heterogenous setup of humans and robots working collaboratively requires real-time communication between all agents. From a practical standpoint, an important research question is what combination of, and to what extent, different communication means among human and robot agents can provide a safe and continuous operation in the noisy, crowded and highly dynamic environments. This means that the discovery of effective multi-modal communications with the natural fluency and seamless team dynamics of HRC will lead to a dramatic paradigm shift in broad industries such as automation and manufacturing. The aim of the proposed research is to investigate promising communication means (e.g., visual, gestural and body language) and protocols (i.e., both real and virtual) for coordination of tasks achieved through multiple input channels (modes) that are natural to human operators in industrial settings. The robot work-cell will also strengthen current industry collaborations in the areas of manufacturing, social and industrial robotics, and autonomous vehicles, while fostering new partnerships beyond the existing ones. The applicant and his co-applicants need the equipment to spearhead their human-centered robotics research initiative. Access to the robot work-cell will accelerate research progress in this time-sensitive area, help students disseminate verifiable results in their theses and publications, improve the technology readiness of the prototypes developed, and facilitate innovations in industrial automation and cyber-physical systems. To that end, the proposed work-cell will provide a free-access and equitable HQP training platform for not only over 50 graduate students and postdocs from a diverse group in terms of gender, background, and academic preparedness and discipline but also external users who can connect to the work-cell remotely and benefit from the setup through its simulation, data generation, and virtual reality capabilities.

以人为本的机器人技术已成为机器人社区和自动化行业中最有影响力的研究主题之一，因为它是现实情况下所有机器人技术安全功能的组成部分。该项目旨在为以人为本的自主机器人研究创建一个设计，开发和评估工作单元，重点是安全。它将对人类机器人协作（HRC），有效的多模式人机通信和协作机器人（共同机器人）（共同机器人）进行模拟和实验研究。机器人和人类之间的协同作用在共享的工作单元中为许多行业所面临的挑战提供了令人信服的解决方案，包括敏捷制造业和高度可定制的生产。在典型的HRC场景中，机器人旨在执行危险，非人权和重复的任务，而人类合作伙伴则专注于认知决策和非惯例任务，从而改善了吞吐量和质量。人类和机器人的异质设置需要在所有代理之间进行实时沟通。从实际的角度来看，一个重要的研究问题是，人类和机器人代理之间的不同沟通的结合以及在多大程度上可以在嘈杂，拥挤和高度动态的环境中提供安全且连续的操作。这意味着发现有效的多模式通信具有自然流利性和HRC的无缝团队动态，将导致自动化和制造等广泛行业的巨大范式转变。拟议研究的目的是研究有前途的沟通手段（例如，视觉，手势和肢体语言）和协议（即真实和虚拟），以协调通过工业环境中人类运营商自然的多个输入渠道（模式）实现的任务。机器人的工作单元还将加强在制造，社会和工业机器人技术以及自动驾驶汽车领域的当前行业合作，同时促进现有伙伴关系以外的新合作伙伴关系。申请人及其共同申请人需要设备来率领他们以人为本的机器人研究计划。进入机器人工作单元将在这个时间敏感的领域加速研究进度，帮助学生在本文和出版物中传播可验证的结果，改善开发的原型技术的技术准备，并促进工业自动化和网络物理系统的创新。为此，拟议的工作细胞将在性别，背景和学术准备和纪律方面为来自多样化小组的50多名研究生和博士后提供一个自由访问和公平的HQP培训平台，以及可以通过其模拟，数据生成，数据生成和虚拟现实能力从设置中受益的外部用户，还可以从事工作，并从中受益。