Task lines and motion guides

Abstract

The new task lines and motion guides approaches to telerobotics are described. Motion guides is a new paradigm for teleoperation of a robot where the path is teleoperated rather than the robot, and the robot is constrained to follow the path. Continuous commands to the robot are only one dimensional: forward, back, or halt along the motion guide. Task lines have subtasks attached to motion guides. The task lines and motion guides have been implemented in a virtual reality environment to enable task description and execution to be done in a natural virtual reality graphics environment rather than via direct interaction with a command program. Subtasks are represented in the virtual reality environment by icons attached to the motion guides. The combination of task lines and motion guides is valuable for ground control of Space Station robots, which is the initial application for this technology.