Author: Jean Vaz, Fausto Vega and Yu Hang Email: chagasva@unlv.nevada.edu
Date: Last modified on 04/04/19
Keywords: Teleoperation, Exoskeleton, Human-machine Interface.

Telerobotics Papers

1. The capio active upper body exoskeleton and its application for teleoperation
Publisher: 13th Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation, 2015. Keywords: Humanoids, telerobotics, tele-operation, virtual reality

Mallwitz, M., Will, N., Teiwes, J. and Kirchner, E.A., 2015. The capio active upper body exoskeleton and its application for teleoperation. In Proceedings of the 13th Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation. ESA/Estec Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation (ASTRA-2015). ESA.

This paper describes using a active dual-arm upper body exoskeleton for the teleoperation of an humanoid robot. The authors present a solution for the kinematics and dynamics in real-time for the Capio exoskeleton in order to control the robot AILA. From this presentation, the paper concludes that the Capio exoskeleton was successful integrated into the virtual environment CAVE.

From the state-of-the-art, the paper identifies challenges with haptic devices. The paper addresses these challenges by introducing Capio exoskeleton which is a wearable bakc back with 8 DOF per arm. The results of this approach are novel, showing that a humanoid robot can be used to operate construction machinery, as well as many other devices, giving them flexibility over traditional single-purpose automation.

The paper presents the following theoretical principles: tele-operation parameters & input/output. Little discussion was provided on the humanoid robot principles, however these were provided in some of the cited works.

From the principles and results, the paper concludes that the having the Capio Exoskeleton teleoperating the humanoid robot AILA in ISS mockup is viable, with the following improvements: (1) Improved in manipulation, such as turn switches ; (2) Improved simulations with the simulated lunar mission such as recharging the robots battery at the lander module and submitting the robots status to the ground control; and (3) Improved visual feedback, by having the POV of the robot and the CAD real-time simulation.

I liked this paper because: (1) it presents fundamental work toward utilizing a exoskeleton to manipulate AILA robot; (2) it utilized two types of system integration “CAD model” for the kinematics and “exoskeleton” for toque/force feedback; and (3) it provided comprehensive experimental results for the tele-operation by showing external torques on the Capio exoskeleton transferred from AILA upper arm rotation. However, I lit bit of more explanation on the fundamental kinematics of their CAD mode could have been extremely helpful to the reader.

Three things I learned from this paper were: (1) the basics of design, control and software features for tele-operation; (2) the interaction between the wearable exoskeleton and the physical platform; and (3) safety features implemented in the system to avoid any major damage.

2. An effective and affordable technique for human motion capturing and teleoperation of a humanoid robot using an exoskeleton
Publisher: Humanoids 2017
Keywords: Humanoid Robot, Exoskeleton, Motion Capture, Affordable Teleoperation Technique, Image Processing.

Sinha, A.K., Sahu, S.K., Bijarniya, R.K. and Patra, K., 2017, December. An effective and affordable technique for human motion capturing and teleoperation of a humanoid robot using an exoskeleton. In 2017 2nd International Conference on Man and Machine Interfacing (MAMI) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

This paper describes using a active dual-arm upper body exoskeleton for the teleoperation of an humanoid robot. The authors present a solution for the kinematics and dynamics in real-time for the Capio exoskeleton in order to control the robot AILA. From this presentation, the paper concludes that the Capio exoskeleton was successful integrated into the virtual environment CAVE.

From the state-of-the-art, the paper identifies challenges with haptic devices. The paper addresses these challenges by introducing Capio exoskeleton which is a wearable bakc back with 8 DOF per arm. The results of this approach are novel, showing that a humanoid robot can be used to operate construction machinery, as well as many other devices, giving them flexibility over traditional single-purpose automation.

The paper presents the following theoretical principles: tele-operation parameters & input/output. Little discussion was provided on the humanoid robot principles, however these were provided in some of the cited works.

From the principles and results, the paper concludes that the having the Capio Exoskeleton teleoperating the humanoid robot AILA in ISS mockup is viable, with the following improvements: (1) Improved in manipulation, such as turn switches ; (2) Improved simulations with the simulated lunar mission such as recharging the robots battery at the lander module and submitting the robots status to the ground control; and (3) Improved visual feedback, by having the POV of the robot and the CAD real-time simulation.

I liked this paper because: (1) it presents fundamental work toward utilizing a exoskeleton to manipulate AILA robot; (2) it utilized two types of system integration “CAD model” for the kinematics and “exoskeleton” for toque/force feedback; and (3) it provided comprehensive experimental results for the tele-operation by showing external torques on the Capio exoskeleton transferred from AILA upper arm rotation. However, I lit bit of more explanation on the fundamental kinematics of their CAD mode could have been extremely helpful to the reader.

Three things I learned from this paper were: (1) the basics of design, control and software features for tele-operation; (2) the interaction between the wearable exoskeleton and the physical platform; and (3) safety features implemented in the system to avoid any major damage.

3. Intention-Based EMG Control for Powered Exoskeletons
Publisher: IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering 2012
Keywords: Biomedical Engineering, Exoskeleton, EMG, human-assistive robotics

T. Lenzi, S. M. M. De Rossi, N. Vitiello and M. C. Carrozza, “Intention-Based EMG Control for Powered Exoskeletons,” in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 59, no. 8, pp. 2180-2190, Aug. 2012.

This paper describes using Electromyographical (EMG) signals to control an elbow powered exoskeleton. The authors presents the description of the simple EMG-based proportional control system and its implementation on the NEUROExos platform, a powered exoskeleton for elbow assistance. The authors presents the results of ten healthy subjects' participation in experimentations where this technology was used to produce simple periodic elbow movement. From this presentation, the paper concludes that, even with a simple proportional EMG control, subjects adapt almost instantaneously to the assistance provided by the robot and can reduce their muscular effort while maintaining control of the movement.

From the state-of-the-art, the paper identifies challenges in using EMG signals to estimate human muscular torques and apply this information effectively on human-assistive robotics. The technique is highly limited by the necessity of complex user-dependent and session-dependent calibration procedures. The paper addresses these challenges by proposing a simple proportional EMG control where users can calibrate the proportional gains independently in short amount of time. The results of this approach are that subjects can quickly adapt to the proportional EMG control based elbow exoskeleton and use the skeleton to control their arm movement in sync with designed visual and audio feed-back.

The paper presents the following theoretical principles: (1) The central nervous system's ability to adapt to external motor disturbances can allow subjects to compensate for the inaccuracy of EMG-signal-based torque estimation;(2) A simple proportional EMG control system applied on exoskeleton can allow subjects to benefit from assistive power from robot without needs for high precision muscular torque measurement; and (3) a simple calibration process where the subject adjust the gain value directly while testing the system.

The principles are explained fairly. For example the experimentation method show the correct application of the principles.

From the principles and results, the paper concludes: (1) a proportional EMG control applied to exoskeleton is sufficient to provide movement assistance; (2) subjects were able to maintain control of movement and accuracy of movement in both amplitude and frequency; and (n) subjects were able to adapt to the assistance provided by exoskeleton in short periods of time (a few seconds).

I liked this paper because the authors were able to arrange experimentation that provided positive experimental results that support their hypothesis. I disliked this paper because the author made assertive conclusion based on a narrow experimentation arrangement. The experiment only focused on one degree-of-freedom elbow movement. Furthermore, visual and audio feedback on the accuracy of movement could have contributed to the success. I would have liked to see the authors apply the same control system on multiple-degree-of-freedom exoskeleton and limit the effect of visual and audio feedback.

Three things I learned from this paper were: (1) the limitation of EMG signal in estimate muscular torque; (2) the limitation of extensive session and individual-dependent calibration process for assistive technology; and (3) central nervous system's ability to adapt can overcome the inaccuracy in technology.

4. Design of hybrid drive exoskeleton robot XoR2
Publisher: 2013 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robot and Systems (IROS) November 3-7, 2013
Keywords (platform, field of research, algorithm or approach/methodologies, more details ): Exoskeleton, Pneumatics, pneumatic electric hybrid drive

Hyon, S.H., Hayashi, T., Yagi, A., Noda, T. and Morimoto, J., 2013, November. Design of hybrid drive exoskeleton robot XoR2. In 2013 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (pp. 4642-4648). IEEE.

This paper describes the challenges of an exoskeleton in the robotics community. The authors present their exoskeleton prototype, the ATR Hybird drive eXoskeleton Robot (XoR). From this presentation, the paper concludes with experiments of their prototype and its actuator performance.

From the state-of-the-art, the paper identifies challenges in robots for rehabilitation or compensation. Specifically in the aspect of predicting human intention and how to apply the force onto the human. Along with these challenges is creating a robot with limited size that has optimal performance. The paper addresses these challenges by describing their prototype hardware and actuation. The results of this approach are successful, yet there are many ways for improvement.

The paper presents the following theoretical principles: (1) pneumatic-electric hybrid drive; (2) mechanical design ; and force sensing.

The principles are explained well. For example, for the pneumatic- electric hybrid concept, they explain the reasons of this type of control which is based on the technical design requirements drafted. Overall this method takes the sum of two actuators, a pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) and small electric motors, in order to equal a desired torque. The reason for the sum is that both of the actuators are inefficient in some aspect. The PAM’s have a delay in force tracking due to the compressibility of air, yet the role of the servo in this system is to minimize the delay as they generate a high torque in a short period of time. Figure 2 depicts this application of the principles.

From the principles and results, the paper concludes: sensorless torque control is possible for a swinging leg with electric motors; (2) future work needs to be done in order to identify the source of an external force ; and hybrid drive is promising for a high performance mobile exoskeleton.

I liked this paper because they created their own custom force sensor with the use of strain gages. These sensors measured the force applied to the PAM’s. They also compared their new prototype to their old one and mentioned the improvements. The authors also provided data in order to show the actuator performance based off the task.

Three things I learned from this paper were: (1) the importance of technical design requirements and how to build a prototype off these requirements; (2) the term hybrid drive control which uses both pneumatic actuators and servos; and the the potential for research in the exoskeleton field.