DEMONSTRATION OF A HIGH-FIDELITY PREDICTIVE PREVIEW DISPLAY TECHNIQUEFOR TELEROBOTIC SERVICING IN-SPACE

A highly effective predictive/preview display technique for teleroboti c servicing in space under several seconds communication time delay ha s been demonstrated on a large laboratory scale in May 1993, involving the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as the simulated ground control station and, 2500 miles away, the Goddard Space Flight Center as the simulate d satellite servicing set-up. The technique is based on a high-fidelit y calibration procedure that enables a high-fidelity overlay of 3-D gr aphics robot arm and object models over given 2-D TV camera images of robot arm and objects. To generate robot arm motions, the operator can confidently interact in mal time with the graphics models of the robo t arm and objects overlaid on an actual camera view of the remote work site. The technique also enables the operator to generate high-fideli ty synthetic TV camera views showing motion events that are bidden in a given TV camera view or for which no TV camera views are available. The positioning accuracy achieved by this technique for a zoomed-in ca mera setting was about +/-5 mm, well within the allowable +/-12 mm err or margin at the insertion of a 45 cm long tool in the servicing task.