Haptic Human/Machine Interface: The Operator Becomes The UAV
(Room 271-272)
04 May 16
10:30 AM
-
11:00 AM
Tracks:
Air, Commercial, Defense, Research and Development, Technical Track: Human Factors Research
Soluthin is creating a haptic human/machine interface (HMMI) intended to elevate human/robot interaction to match the capabilities of the next generation robotic and unmanned aerial systems. The HHMI includes electrodes in contact with the skin surface of the operator, connected via an x-y grid of conductive leads and addressed using techniques borrowed from active matrix video displays (at a lower resolution). A simple version of the HHMI is a lightweight, comfortable, haptic sleeve having electrode size and density enabling automatic calibration to the unique physiology of any user. The haptic sleeve provides highly precise electrical activity detection (to detect the muscles and nerves employed in even subtle arm movement) and electrical signal application (to cause involuntary and accurate arm movement). The advancement of UAV systems in many fields has been rapid and widespread. There has not been a concurrent evolution in the interface of a remote human operator with the UAV, beyond the joystick and video display. The industry has focused on leaps forward for the main UAV system, while the joystick/video interface seems to have been left as a good-enough solution. The HHMI utilizes haptic sensory feedback creating relevant touch cues related to the remote onboard/ambient conditions, and also utilizes the detection of body movements of the operator from muscular electrical signals to intuitively generate remote control signals. These features enable the operator to be alerted to subtle variances in conditions which over time could become problematic. When combined with other available virtual reality technologies, the HHMI makes possible the experience and control of UAV operation as if the operator were indeed the UAV rather than a remote observer/controller. The operator feels, sees and hears the synchronized sensory cues that put him in the skin of the UAV. The successful creation of the HHMI opens new avenues in human-automation interaction and control, it may also impact areas of accelerated learning, physical training and rehabilitation. If the ability to identify muscle groups reaches a sufficient level of definition, and the ability to apply electrical signals reaches a similar level, a system in which previously-known actions and muscle movements could be developed for improved physical training and correction of physical motion. Muscle memory associated with nearly all kinds of human activities can be more quickly developed to learn, for example, how to fully exploit the capabilities of an autonomous flight system so that the remote UAV control becomes a natural extension of the operator’s reality. For military applications, beyond the robotics, rapid muscle memory build up could enhance the training of soldiers in basic and advanced weapons. Additionally, new forms of safety restraints could be imagined in which the human user is prevented from taking an action that may result in injury or a catastrophic vehicle accident. A key concern in the safety of aircraft flight is ensuring that the pilot maintains an appropriate understanding of the orientation of the aircraft. This is a concern both for manned aircraft flight, especially in IFR conditions, as well as for unmanned aircraft operations. In manned flight, even with in-cockpit aids such as an artificial horizon, pilots can still become disoriented and often may trust their physical and proprioceptive senses as opposed to the cockpit aids. In unmanned aircraft operations, pilot lack proprioceptive inputs and must instead receive all information about aircraft orientation through other means. Typically, this has been done through visual and auditory aids on the ground stations of remote controllers, each of which - if overused - can actually become a detriment to a pilot’s awareness of the situation. Haptic feedback provides an additional outlet for alerting the pilot to the true state of the aircraft, but historically, haptic interfaces have not been well-received. If improvements in haptic stimuli could be improved to the point that gentle, finely-located ”pressures” could be applied to the pilots body in varying locations (to promote a sense of being upside down or tilted to the side), it may provide an additional alerting mechanism to inappropriate aircraft orientations. In addition, a variety of other alerts could potentially be sent through a similar interface. The HHMI that is intended to provide such haptic feedback in a product platform that can be integrated into the existing and future robotic and UAV systems. The HHMI represents a possible paradigm shift in the interface, and therefore the utility, of the robotic system.