Collaborative online teleoperation with spatial dynamic voting and a human "Tele-Actor"

Authors:
  • KGK. Goldberg
    K. Goldberg
  • DSD. Song
    D. Song
  • YKY. Khor
    Y. Khor
  • DPD. Pescovitz
    D. Pescovitz
  • ALA. Levandowski
    A. Levandowski
  • JHJ. Himmelstein
    J. Himmelstein
  • JSJ. Shih
    J. Shih
  • AHA. Ho
    A. Ho
  • EPE. Paulos
    E. Paulos
  • JDJ. Donath
    J. Donath
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Abstract
Internet-based "online robots" now provide public ac- cess to remote locations such as museums and laboratories. The Tele-Actor is a collaborative online teleoperation sys- tem for distance learning that allows many students to si- multaneously share control of a single mobile resource. Our goal is to preserve the educational advantages of field trips without the drawbacks of group travel. We propose the "Spatial Dynamic Voting" (SDV) inter- face for Multiple Operator Single Robot (MOSR) teleoper- ation. The SDV collects, displays, and analyzes a sequence of spatial votes from multiple online operators at their Inter- net browsers. The votes drive the motion of a single mobile robot or human "Tele-Actor". This paper describes Version 3.0 of the system architecture, SDV interface, algorithms for automated goal selection, and metrics for collaboration and leadership. We report results from a July 2001 field test with 56 remote users. See: www.tele-actor.net.