SBIR-STTR Award

iRobot Corporation and Chatten Associates propose to jointly develop the Stingray teleoperated control system for driving the iRobot Warrior UGV at high speeds. The Stingray Project will integrate Chatten’s HARV (Head-Aimed Remote Viewer) immersive telepresence system with proprioceptive behaviors on iRobot’s dynamically-reconfigurable Warrior UGV to provide unprecedented capabilities for driving small UGVs at high speed in complex environments. During Phase I, we will develop the initial design for the Stingray control system. We will implement and demonstrate immersive teleoperation with the HARV controlling the Warrior up to its maximum current travel speed. We will explore the use of variable fields-of-view and a panoramic 360-degree camera to provide additional operator awareness. We will also analyze the feasibility of using the Warrior’s dynamic track configuration and weight shifting to control oversteer and understeer. The final report will include documentation of the design tradeoffs, feasibility analysis, and predicted performance. For the Phase I Option, we will implement proprioceptive driver assist behaviors to dynamically adjust the handling characteristics of the Warrior, and we will add stereo audio to the teleoperation system. In Phase II, we will complete the design of the control system and build a fully-integrated Stingray Warrior UGV.

Keywords:
Robotics, Teleoperation, Ugv, Telepresence, Proprioception, Driver Assist, High-Speed Control

For the Stingray Project, iRobot Corporation and Chatten Associates will develop techniques for teleoperation of small, high-speed UGVs. Currently deployed small UGVs are limited in the missions that they can perform, due to their slow speed and the limited situational awareness that they provide to their operators. We will address these limitations by combining semi-autonomous driver-assist behaviors with immersive telepresence. We will use the iRobot Warrior platform for the Stingray UGV, and we will modify this platform to travel at speeds up to 20 mph by replacing the treads with wheels and modifying the gearing for higher speeds. Driver-assist behaviors such as autonomous perimeter following, street following, and heading control will enable the operator to control small UGVs at much higher speeds than is currently feasible. The Chatten Head Aimed Remote Viewer (HARV) provides greatly increased situational awareness compared to fixed or joystick-aimed cameras, and we will extend these capabilities with panoramic and rear-view cameras. The combination of driver assist behaviors and immersive teleoperation will allow the Stingray UGV to perform reconnaissance and IED search missions at high speeds, with the vehicle under autonomous control, while the operator is free to focus full attention on the reconnaissance task.

Keywords:
Robotics, Ugv, Small Ugv, High-Speed Ugv, Teleoperation, Driver Assist Behaviors, Semi-Autonomous Behavior, Head-Aimed Viewer