Work

A Methodology to Assess the Human Factors Associated with Lunar Teleoperated Assembly Tasks

Year: 2020

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: Low-latency telerobotics can enable more intricate surface tasks on extraterrestrial planetary bodies than has ever been previously attempted. In order for humanity to create a sustainable lunar presence, well-developed collaboration between humans and robots is necessary to perform complex tasks. This paper presents a methodology to assess the human factors, situational awareness (SA) and cognitive load (CL), associated with teleoperated assembly tasks. Currently, telerobotic assembly on an extraterrestrial body has never been attempted, and a valid methodology to assess the associated human factors has not been developed. The Telerobotics Laboratory at the University of Colorado-Boulder created the Telerobotic Simulation System (TSS) which enables remote operation of a rover and a robotic arm. The TSS was used in a laboratory experiment designed as an analog to a lunar mission. The operator's task was to assemble a radio interferometer. Each participant completed this task under two conditions, remote teleoperation (limited SA) and local operation (optimal SA). The goal of this experiment was to establish a methodology to accurately measure the operator's SA and CL while performing teleoperated assembly tasks. A successful methodology would yield results showing greater SA and lower CL while operating locally. Performance metrics measured in this experiment showed greater SA and lower CL in the local environment, supported by a 27% increase in the mean time to completion of the assembly task when operating remotely. Subjective measurements of SA and CL did not align with the performance metrics. This brought into question the validity of the subjective assessments used in this experiment when applied to telerobotic assembly tasks. Results from this experiment will guide future work attempting to accurately quantify the human factors associated with telerobotic assembly. Once an accurate methodology has been developed, we will be able to measure how new variables affect an operator's SA and CL in order to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of telerobotic assembly tasks.

Source: IEEE Aerospace Conference (AERO)

DOI: 10.1109/aero47225.2020.9172667

Authors: Arun Kumar, Mason Bell, Benjamin Mellinkoff, Alex Sandoval, Wendy Bailey Martin, Jack Burns

Institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, Ball (United States)

Language: English

Topic: Teleoperation and Haptic Systems

Subfield: Mechanical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute

Award: MULTIPLE YEAR AWARD WITH INCREMENTAL FUNDING FOR YEARS ONE TO FIVE. THIS PROPOSAL IS ENTITLED "NETWORK FOR EXPLORATION AND SPACE SCIENCE NESS." THIS IS AWARDED IN RESPONSE TO COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT NOTICE CAN NO. NNH16ZDA009C NASA SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION RESEARCH VIRTUAL INSTITUTE SSERVI CYCLE THREE. THE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR IS DR. JACK O. BURNS WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO UCO. PROJECT SUMMARY: NESS WILL IMPLEMENT CROSS-DISCIPLINARY PARTNERSHIPS TO ADVANCE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY AND HUMAN EXPLORATION OF TARGET DESTINATIONS AND WILL CONDUCT RESEARCH IN ASTROPHYSICS AND HELIOPHYSICS THAT IS UNIQUELY ENABLED BY HUMAN AND ROBOTIC EXPLORATION OF TARGET BODIES. OUR RESEARCH IS DERIVED FROM THREE DECADAL SURVEYS AND FROM THE NASA ASTROPHYSICS AND GLOBAL EXPLORATION ROADMAPS. NESS RESEARCH INCLUDES: TELEROBOTIC OPERATION OF SURFACE SCIENCE EXPLORATION ASSETS AT THE MOON AND MARS THE NATURE OF THE MOON'S CORE AN IMPROVED SELENODETIC COORDINATE SYSTEM PRECISION TESTS OF GRAVITATION ENERGETIC SOLAR PARTICLE EVENTS IN INTERPLANETARY SPACE AND EXTRASOLAR SYSTEMS DUST ENVIRONMENTS OF SPACE AND TARGET BODIES DETECTION OF THE UNIVERSE'S FIRST GALAXIES AND HABITABLE EXOPLANETS. FOUR KEY PROJECTS WILL BE PROPOSED. EXPLORATION SCIENCE NESS WILL MATURE A CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY OF SCIENCE AND EXPLORATION MISSIONS FROM THE ORBITS OF TARGET BODIES: SURFACE TELEROBOTICS. WE WILL DEVELOP HUMAN-ROBOTIC SCIENCE ASSOCIATED WITH ORION/HABITAT MISSIONS IN CIS-LUNAR ORBITS. OUR TEAM WILL BUILD TOOLS FOR THE CREW TO TELEOPERATE ROVERS ON THE LUNAR FARSIDE THAT WILL FEED-FORWARD TO THE FIRST CREWED MARS MISSIONS. WE WILL INVESTIGATE THE SYSTEMS NEEDED ON ORION/HABITAT TO SUPPORT TELEROBOTICS ANALYZE LUNAR LOW FREQUENCY RADIO TELESCOPE DEPLOYMENT ALONG WITH A LUNAR SAMPLE RETURN AND DEVELOP CREW TRAINING STRATEGIES. LLR CURRENT ALTERNATE THEORIES OF GRAVITY PREDICT DEVIATIONS FROM GENERAL RELATIVITY GR AT A LEVEL THAT IS WITHIN THE GRASP OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF LUNAR LASER RANGING LLR INSTRUMENTS. NESS WILL IMPROVE BY FACTORS GREATER THAN 100 THE SIGNAL PHOTOELECTRON ACCURACY OF LLR TO SET NEW CONSTRAINTS ON GR AND THE LUNAR CORE. WE WILL ALSO MEASURE/MODEL DUST ON LLR OPTICAL SURFACES AND SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE THE SELENODETIC COORDINATE SYSTEM FOR EXPLORATION AND SCIENCE MISSIONS. HELIOPHYSICS AND SPACE PHYSICS_NESS HELIOPHYSICS RESEARCH DIRECTLY IMPACTS HUMAN EXPLORATION VIA OUR STUDIES OF SOLAR PARTICLE RADIATION AND INTERPLANETARY DUST. WE WILL ADVANCE THE DESIGN FOR A LUNAR-BASED LOW FREQUENCY LESS THAN 10 MHZ RADIO IMAGER UNIQUELY CAPABLE OF IMAGING THE TRAJECTORY OF PARTICLE ACCELERATION IN SOLAR ERUPTIONS AND MEASURING INTERPLANETARY NANODUST. FROM COSMIC DAWN TO HABITABLE PLANETS NESS ADDRESSES KEY QUESTIONS FROM THE ASTROPHYSICS DECADAL SURVEY: "WHEN AND HOW DID THE FIRST GALAXIES FORM?" AND "CAN WE FIND ANOTHER PLANET LIKE EARTH ORBITING A NEARBY STAR?" OUR TEAM WILL USE NEW MODELING TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES TO INVESTIGATE THE FORMATION OF THE FIRST GALAXIES USING THE NEUTRAL HYDROGEN 21-CM SIGNAL RED-SHIFTED TO 2-3 M. THE MOON'S FARSIDE IS UNIQUELY SHIELDED FROM RADIO FREQUENCY INTERFERENCE AND FREE FROM IONOSPHERIC EFFECTS TO ENABLE SUCH OBSERVATIONS. A FARSIDE OBSERVATORY IS IMPORTANT FOR EXPLORATION TO INVESTIGATE THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND TECHNICAL CHALLENGES TO DEPLOYING/OPERATING A LARGE-AREA SCIENTIFIC STATION ON THE MOON. WE WILL ADVANCE 21-CM COSMOLOGY THEORY THE DESIGN OF A LOW RADIO FREQUENCY ARRAY WIDE-BAND RECEIVERS AND NEW CALIBRATION TECHNIQUES. NESS ALSO WILL ADVANCE THE STUDY OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HABITABLE EXOPLANETS BY EMPLOYING POLARIMETRY ON LARGE UV_OPTICAL TELESCOPES CONSTRUCTED IN CIS-LUNAR SPACE AND BY USING A FARSIDE RADIO ARRAY TO DETECT MAGNETOSPHERES FOR EARTH-LIKE PLANETS.