Exploring Latency during Long-Distance Robot-Assisted Teleoperation and Construction
Publication: Computing in Civil Engineering 2023
ABSTRACT
NASA’s Artemis Program includes a plan to build a sustainable habitat on the lunar surface along with missions for Mars exploration. With the advanced technology in teleoperation, such tasks outside of the Earth have become feasible. To conduct the surveying, excavation, and site preparation toward the habitat construction in the future, we should prepare against many challenging and uncertain issues, such as microgravity, regolith dust, and extreme environments. Under those inherent environmental constraints, a robust teleoperation system plays a key role in mission tasks on the lunar surface. In a remote-control system, a time delay occurs inevitably in data processing or signal transmission. This latency affects operators’ mental workload, situational awareness, decision-making, and in turn, work performance. Therefore, there is a need to better understand uncertainties due to latency in advance to reduce unexpected or uncontrolled situations. This paper examines the impacts of time delay during space teleoperation and discusses future research directions. The capabilities of teleoperation for knowledge-based work under latency conditions are evaluated based on the technical limitations and requirements. The outcome of this paper is expected to provide foundational knowledge to minimize operators’ mental workload and improve work performance in long-distance robot-assisted teleoperation.
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Published In
Computing in Civil Engineering 2023
Pages: 779 - 786
History
Published online: Jan 25, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Aerospace engineering
- Automation and robotics
- Business management
- Construction engineering
- Construction management
- Construction sites
- Engineering fundamentals
- Geomatic surveys
- Geomatics
- Practice and Profession
- Site surveys
- Space colonies
- Space construction
- Space exploration
- Sustainable development
- Systems engineering
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