Evaluation of the Head-Controlled Telemanipulator
The telemanipulation test-bed is at the stage when it is ready to be evaluated. A set of tests have been designed for this purpose. These tests focus on comparing the virtual headstick's performance to that of a real headstick. Another area of focus is to evaluate the importance of force-reflection and proprioception in telemanipulation and to demonstrate the use of the telerobot in performing simple everyday tasks.
The tests will be performed using three types of interfaces:
- Virtual headstick implemented on the telerobot.
- Helmet mounted headstick attached to the master robot (this is to evaluate the performance of a real headstick with the inertial laod of the master robot)
- Helmet mounted headstick (this is the control case and the data collected from tests performed using this interface will be used as the reference)
In the first two cases, the force and position data will be collected using the kinematic routines written for the PerForce master robot. In the case of the simple helmet mounted headstick, a device called the ADL/Shooting Star measurement system will be used for collecting the data. This device is a six degree of freedom linkage with extremely light links - its end-effector will be attached to the helmet and this will allow us to perform the control experiments with minimal addition of inertial load to the headstick.
Task boards have been made for the different types of tests. A sketch of the user interacting with a task board is shown below.
The task boards will have the following tests:
- Fitts Law type of positioning tasks: This test will involve moving between
targets mounted on a task board. The size and distance between targets will be varied (look here to see the task board layout). This test will be performed using all three interfaces.
- Drawing geometric figures: This test will involve tracing geometric figures like circles, rectangles and triangles on a sheet of paper using markers. All three interfaces will be used.
- Key in Keyhole and Light-switch flipping task: these will be performed using the virtual headstick only.
Last Updated: July 17, 1996 by Vijay Jayachandran (jayachan@asel.udel.edu)
