Reinforced Safety-Related Condition Awareness in a Motion Planning System for Remote Manipulators in Nuclear Decommissioning

• Published in: 2024 9th International Conference on Control and Robotics Engineering (ICCRE) pp. 196 - 201
• Main Authors: Zhang, Kaiqiang, Pawar, Vijay M., Orr, Lachlan, Louro Rei, Ricardo J., Sugawara, Yoshimasa, Sakaue, Tomoki, Fumiaki, Abe, Cryer, Alice, Caliskanelli, Ipek, Skilton, Robert
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 10-05-2024
• Subjects: Cognitive load; field robotics; Human computer interaction; human-centred systems; Manipulators; Monitoring; motion planning; nuclear decommissioning; Planning; remote operation; Task analysis
• ISSN: 2835-3722
• DOI: 10.1109/ICCRE61448.2024.10589853

Motion planning of remote manipulators is a challenging task in nuclear decommissioning practice. Operators have to consider different safety-related factors to plan safe motions in such critical applications. Novel motion planning systems assist operators in planning collision-free motions. However, there is no effective way to reinforce the operators' awareness of multiple safety-related conditions, which are beyond the considerations of standard motion planning requirements in other application fields. This paper presents a human-machine interaction approach that monitors safety-related conditions and reinforces operators' awareness, when potential risks likely emerge. Three functions, which reinforce the awareness of manipulator-environment clearance, radiation exposure, and system limits, are implemented to realize the proposed interaction approach and reduce operators' cognitive load. A pilot study was carried out using a motion planning system enhanced with the proposed approach. The effectiveness has been qualitatively verified through the pilot study.