Page 37 - Introduction to AI Robotics

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1 From Teleoperation To Autonomy

Figure 1.2 A Model 8 Telemanipulator. The upper portion of the device is placed
in the ceiling, and the portion on the right extends into the hot cell. (Photograph
courtesy Central Research Laboratories.)

plutonium, in large quantities. Although the immensity of the dangers of
working with nuclear materials was not well understood at the time, all the
personnel involved knew there were health risks. One of the first solutions
was the glove box. Nuclear material was placed in a glass box. A person
stood (or sat) behind a leaded glass shield and stuck their hands into thick
rubberized gloves. This allowed the worker to see what they were doing and
to perform almost any task that they could do without gloves.
But this was not an acceptable solution for highly radioactive materials,
and mechanisms to physically remove and completely isolate the nuclear
materials from humans had to be developed. One such mechanism was
TELEMANIPULATOR a force reflecting telemanipulator, a sophisticated mechanical linkage which
translated motions on one end of the mechanism to motions at the other end.
A popular telemanipulator is shown in Fig. 1.2.
A nuclear worker would insert their hands into (or around) the telema-
nipulator, and move it around while watching a display of what the other
end of the arm was doing in a containment cell. Telemanipulators are simi-
lar in principle to the power gloves now used in computer games, but much
harder to use. The mechanical technology of the time did not allow a perfect
mapping of hand and arm movements to the robot arm. Often the opera-