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|  Robotics Club at UCF Takes 4th Place at AUVC
........... August 2009
Robotics Club ended up in 4th place at the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition (AUVC) out of a record 30 teams! This was the best we have ever done at this event, and the bar was set extremely high with Cornell University completing the entire course, the first time anyone has ever done so at this event. Read more...
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|  Robotics Club at UCF Takes 1st place again at 2nd Annual Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition!
........... June 2009
For those who haven’t already heard, the Robotics Club at UCF won 1st place for the second year in a row at the Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition sponsored by AUVSI and ONR, bringing home 6k in prize money! Read more...
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|  Robotics and Intelligent Systems Team Awarded New Contract
...........
April 2009
The Robotics and Intelligent Systems Team was awarded a new contract with Tami Griffith at RDECOM STTC to perform work with Intuitive User Interfaces in Virtual Worlds. The goal of the project is to evaluate new types of commercial off the shelf interfaces and evaluate how they can be used to simplify or improve the user experience in Virtual 3D Environments. We had a kick off meeting February 24th, 2009 where we established that our first job is to incorporate the Nintendo Wiimote and Balance board into the Second Life Virtual World.
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|  Doctoral Student Receives Student Paper Award at RMBS 2009
...........
April 2009
Aniket Vartak, a doctoral student at UCF-IST's ACTIVE Lab, received the 2nd place Student Paper award for his paper that he presented at this year's Rocky Mountain Bioengineering Symposium (RMBS 2009) in Milwaukee, WI on 17-19 April, 2009.
Great job getting IST & UCF represented in a Medical related community!
Read the abstract of his paper entitled “Estimation of arousal using decomposed skin conductance features”
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|  Dr. Denise Nicholson Honored at UCF's Founder's Day Honors Convocation
...........
April 2009
Congratulations to Dr. Denise Nicholson, as she was presented with UCF's Distinguished Researcher Award on Wednesday, April 1st.
"Nominated by Dr. Randall Shumaker, Dr. Nicholson is recognized for her primary area of research, Augmented Cognition as well as her work in interdisciplinary systems engineering research. Her track record of innovation, continually bridging across academic disciplines is well known across the DoD science and technology community.”
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|  ACTIVE Lab to take part in HCI International 2009
............
March 2009 Dr. Denise Nicholson and Dr. Cali Fidopiastis are to have active roles this year at HCI International 2009 as co-chairs within the thematic area of Augmented Cognition. Dr. Nicholson will be taking the roles of session co-chair for both Augmented Cognition within Neuroergonomics, and Applications and Challenges in Neurally-driven System Interfaces - II Dr. Fidopiastis will be serving as co-chair for Challenges in Neurally-driven System Interfaces - II The ACTIVE Lab is proud to be presenting the following papers: - Assessing Cognitive State with Multiple Physiological Measures: A Modular Approach Lee Sciarini; Denise Nicholson.
- Impact of Automation and Task Load on Unmanned System Operator's Eye Movement Patterns
Cali Fidopiastis; Julie Drexler; Daniel Barber; Keryl Cosenzo; Michael Barnes; Jessie Y. C. Chen; Denise Nicholson. - Neurally-driven Adaptive Decision Aids
Alexandra Geyer; Jared Freeman; Denise Nicholson; Cali Fidopiastis; Phan Luu.
For more information about the related thematic areas, please visit: www.hcii2009.org/shortProgram.php
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|  Dr. Cali Fidopiastis Represents the ACTIVE Lab in IRB Advisor Newsletter
............
March 2009
Congratulations to Cali Fidopiastis at IST. Cali, Eileen Smith and Charles Hughes manned a booth at the PRIM&R conference in November where they demonstrated virtual reality and simulation. Cali was interviewed by the IRB Advisor newsletter and two articles about her interview appeared in the March, 2009 edition of the newsletter. Read the article: www.tmcnet.com
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|  Dr. Denise Nicholson Featured in DoD Newsletter
............
March 2009
Dr. Nicholson is featured in the "Spotlight" section of the inaugural issue of the Office of Secretary of Defense HSCB program newsletter. HSCB, or Human Social Culture Behavior Modeling, is a Department of Defense (DoD) research and development program established to develop a science base and technologies that help DoD and government understand and operate effectively in the culturally diverse "human terrain." Read the entire article
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The Robotics Club at UCF places 3rd at this Year's IEEE SoutheastCon Competitions
................March 2009 The Robotics Club at UCF and IEEE won 3rd place out of 37 teams at IEEE SoutheastCon 2009. This year the schools were required to build a small robot capable of locating, collecting, and sorting different beverage products (e.g. cans, glass and plastic bottles). All sorting and storage of the collected items had to be done on the vehicle, and they had to make sure they did not drive over a hidden electric fence. The ACTIVE Lab's very own Daniel Barber serves as faculty advisor to the UCF Robotics club. Congratulations on your success! View Photos from the event
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ACTIVE Lab takes part in STTC Open House
................February 2009 ACTIVE Lab's Robotics and Intelligent Systems Team successsfully supported demonstrations at SFC Paul Ray Smith -- Simulation & Training Technology Center (STTC) in late February 2009. The lab space over at STTC was finished this year to mirror the lab's activities funded by RDECOM. At the open house, we showed our current research with the Wiimote control of 3 different robotic platforms, including the Segway RMP, and showed version 2.0 of the Mixed Initiative Experimental (MIX) Testbed, which will be used in our Adaptive Automation Eperiments with ARL.
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|  Dr. Denise Nicholson Named Highest Funded Researcher at IST
................
February 2009
"The university's Office of Research and Commercialization annually recognizes researchers who hwave brought in $1 million or more in funding during the year. Seven of IST's researchers garnered a total of $15.97 million. Denise Nicholson, with close to $4.2 million, was IST's top earner and second highest on the university-wide list of the 33 "millionaires"."
Read the article that announces the record number of people inducted in the Millionaires Club at UCF. Within the article is list of the 32 top funding earners.
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|  Jaus ++ Released
.................
December 2008
The Robotics and Intelligent Systems team has released JAUS++, an open source C++ implementation of the Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS). JAUS++ is used in all robotics projects developed within the ACTIVE Laboratory and is a great way to rapidly add JAUS support to robotics projects.
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|  Congrats to the Handbook of Virtual Environments Winner!
.................
December 2008 This Year at I/ITSEC, we held a drawing for participants to win a copy of the three volume series of the PSI Handbook of Virtual Environments for Training and Education: Developments for the Military and Beyond. Paul Scott of Connecticut was the lucky winner -- Congratulations! Anyone interested in purchasing the series, please visit: http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C35165.aspx
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| Robotics Club at UCF Takes 4th Place at AUVC........... August 2009
Robotics Club ended up in 4th place at the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition (AUVC) out of a record 30 teams! This was the best we have ever done at this event, and the bar was set extremely high with Cornell University completing the entire course, the first time anyone has ever done so at this event. Read more...
|
| Robotics Club at UCF Takes 1st place again at 2nd Annual Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition!
........... June 2009
For those who haven’t already heard, the Robotics Club at UCF won 1st place for the second year in a row at the Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition sponsored by AUVSI and ONR, bringing home 6k in prize money! Read more...
|
| Robotics and Intelligent Systems Team Awarded New Contract
........... April 2009
The Robotics and Intelligent Systems Team was awarded a new contract with Tami Griffith at RDECOM STTC to perform work with Intuitive User Interfaces in Virtual Worlds. The goal of the project is to evaluate new types of commercial off the shelf interfaces and evaluate how they can be used to simplify or improve the user experience in Virtual 3D Environments. We had a kick off meeting February 24th, 2009 where we established that our first job is to incorporate the Nintendo Wiimote and Balance board into the Second Life Virtual World.
|
| Doctoral Student Receives Student Paper Award at RMBS 2009
...........April 2009
Aniket Vartak, a doctoral student at UCF-IST's ACTIVE Lab, received the 2nd place Student Paper award for his paper that he presented at this year's Rocky Mountain Bioengineering Symposium (RMBS 2009) in Milwaukee, WI on 17-19 April, 2009.
Great job getting IST & UCF represented in a Medical related community!
Read the abstract of his paper entitled “Estimation of arousal using decomposed skin conductance features”
|
| Dr. Denise Nicholson Honored at UCF's Founder's Day Honors Convocation
...........April 2009
Congratulations to Dr. Denise Nicholson, as she was presented with UCF's Distinguished Researcher Award on Wednesday, April 1st.
"Nominated by Dr. Randall Shumaker, Dr. Nicholson is recognized for her primary area of research, Augmented Cognition as well as her work in interdisciplinary systems engineering research. Her track record of innovation, continually bridging across academic disciplines is well known across the DoD science and technology community.”
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| ACTIVE Lab to take part in HCI International 2009
............March 2009 Dr. Denise Nicholson and Dr. Cali Fidopiastis are to have active roles this year at HCI International 2009 as co-chairs within the thematic area of Augmented Cognition. Dr. Nicholson will be taking the roles of session co-chair for both Augmented Cognition within Neuroergonomics, and Applications and Challenges in Neurally-driven System Interfaces - II Dr. Fidopiastis will be serving as co-chair for Challenges in Neurally-driven System Interfaces - II The ACTIVE Lab is proud to be presenting the following papers: - Assessing Cognitive State with Multiple Physiological Measures: A Modular Approach Lee Sciarini; Denise Nicholson.
- Impact of Automation and Task Load on Unmanned System Operator's Eye Movement Patterns
Cali Fidopiastis; Julie Drexler; Daniel Barber; Keryl Cosenzo; Michael Barnes; Jessie Y. C. Chen; Denise Nicholson. - Neurally-driven Adaptive Decision Aids
Alexandra Geyer; Jared Freeman; Denise Nicholson; Cali Fidopiastis; Phan Luu.
For more information about the related thematic areas, please visit: www.hcii2009.org/shortProgram.php
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| Dr. Cali Fidopiastis Represents the ACTIVE Lab in IRB Advisor Newsletter
............March 2009
Congratulations to Cali Fidopiastis at IST. Cali, Eileen Smith and Charles Hughes manned a booth at the PRIM&R conference in November where they demonstrated virtual reality and simulation. Cali was interviewed by the IRB Advisor newsletter and two articles about her interview appeared in the March, 2009 edition of the newsletter. Read the article: www.tmcnet.com
|
| Dr. Denise Nicholson Featured in DoD Newsletter
............March 2009
Dr. Nicholson is featured in the "Spotlight" section of the inaugural issue of the Office of Secretary of Defense HSCB program newsletter. HSCB, or Human Social Culture Behavior Modeling, is a Department of Defense (DoD) research and development program established to develop a science base and technologies that help DoD and government understand and operate effectively in the culturally diverse "human terrain." Read the entire article
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The Robotics Club at UCF places 3rd at this Year's IEEE SoutheastCon Competitions
................March 2009 The Robotics Club at UCF and IEEE won 3rd place out of 37 teams at IEEE SoutheastCon 2009. This year the schools were required to build a small robot capable of locating, collecting, and sorting different beverage products (e.g. cans, glass and plastic bottles). All sorting and storage of the collected items had to be done on the vehicle, and they had to make sure they did not drive over a hidden electric fence. The ACTIVE Lab's very own Daniel Barber serves as faculty advisor to the UCF Robotics club. Congratulations on your success! View Photos from the event
|
|
ACTIVE Lab takes part in STTC Open House
................February 2009 ACTIVE Lab's Robotics and Intelligent Systems Team successsfully supported demonstrations at SFC Paul Ray Smith -- Simulation & Training Technology Center (STTC) in late February 2009. The lab space over at STTC was finished this year to mirror the lab's activities funded by RDECOM. At the open house, we showed our current research with the Wiimote control of 3 different robotic platforms, including the Segway RMP, and showed version 2.0 of the Mixed Initiative Experimental (MIX) Testbed, which will be used in our Adaptive Automation Eperiments with ARL.
|
| Dr. Denise Nicholson Named Highest Funded Researcher at IST
................February 2009
"The university's Office of Research and Commercialization annually recognizes researchers who hwave brought in $1 million or more in funding during the year. Seven of IST's researchers garnered a total of $15.97 million. Denise Nicholson, with close to $4.2 million, was IST's top earner and second highest on the university-wide list of the 33 "millionaires"."
Read the article that announces the record number of people inducted in the Millionaires Club at UCF. Within the article is list of the 32 top funding earners.
|
| Jaus ++ Released
.................December 2008
The Robotics and Intelligent Systems team has released JAUS++, an open source C++ implementation of the Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS). JAUS++ is used in all robotics projects developed within the ACTIVE Laboratory and is a great way to rapidly add JAUS support to robotics projects.
|
| Congrats to the Handbook of Virtual Environments Winner!
.................December 2008 This Year at I/ITSEC, we held a drawing for participants to win a copy of the three volume series of the PSI Handbook of Virtual Environments for Training and Education: Developments for the Military and Beyond. Paul Scott of Connecticut was the lucky winner -- Congratulations! Anyone interested in purchasing the series, please visit: http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C35165.aspx
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ACTIVE Lab's booth this year, at I/ITSEC '08 Denise Nicholson, Ph.D., CMSP -- Catalyst for Integration and Collaboration
Source file located at: http://www.ist.ucf.edu/pdfs/hscpnewsletter_p13.pdf Abstract:
Electrodermal response (EDR) shows characteristic signal patterns that correspond to different emotional states. The first major step in using EDR for estimation of emotional state is the separation of various tonic and phasic components. This separation of components is more challenging when the responses overlap each other as they do when responding within shorter inter-stimulus interval. A mathematical model fitting procedure, which separates these overlapping components, is used in an experiment, where participants (n=18) were shown stimuli from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), which varied by levels of arousal and valance. The EDR signal is collected during the experiment, and features are extracted using the mathematical model fitting procedure. These features are further used, to classify the EDR signal into high versus low arousal responses. A simple k-nearest neighbor algorithm is used to classify the features with 74% accuracy. The accuracy level obtained by a single sensor emphasizes the fact that use of specific feature extraction methods for multi-sensor applications is critical to the classification accuracy. We discuss these results in relation to adaptive system trainer design where multiple biosensors are currently being explored to assess the cognitive state of the learner.
Robotics Club at UCF Takes 1st place again at 2nd Annual Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition!
For those who haven’t already heard, the Robotics Club at UCF won 1st place for the second year in a row at the Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition sponsored by AUVSI and ONR, bringing home 6k in prize money!
 After a rough start on Friday and Saturday due to motor problems, the team worked in to the late night fixing problems and revising the systems software logic making it into the finals on Sunday with the highest score. The final run was one of our best performances yet, traveling through the two 300 ft separated start gates in record time, followed by successful channel navigation. If you were able to watch the live video stream, you saw that we came within inches of successfully docking and shooting the on shore targets with our water cannon before returning back to the starting dock. None of the other 4 teams in the finals came close to duplicating our performance.
Thanks to everyone at IST and the STTC for their continued support of the Robotics Club. Events like this are fantastic experiences for the students and something which they will never forget. Hopefully we’ll have repeated success at the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition next month and San Diego!
(left to right): faculty advisor Daniel Barber, team captain Ross Kerley, Cassondra Puklavage, Chris Bunty, Jonathan Mohlenhoff, graduate advisor Gary Stein, Mike Podel, Travis Goldberg. In the center: the triumphant S.S. Boatname.
This year’s team included:
Daniel Barber – Faculty Advisor
Gary Stein – Graduate Student Advisor
Ross Kerley – Team Captain
Mechanical Team
Chris Bunty
Travis Goldberg
Justin Wiseman
Electrical Team
Ross Kerley
Mike Podel
Software Team
Cassondra Puklavage
Brian Valentino
Jonathan Mohlenhoff
Robotics Club at UCF Takes 4th Place at AUVC
The Robotics Club at UCF ended up in 4th place at the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition (AUVC) out of a record 30 teams! This was the best we have ever done at this event, and the bar was set extremely high with Cornell University completing the entire course, the first time anyone has ever done so at this event.
.jpg) This years competition was composed of several tasks within the mission which included: finding an underwater water buoy, finding green pipes and traveling underneath, dropping "bombs" on top of underwater targets, shooting a missile through a square, and finding an acoustic pinger and surfacing within an area.
If you were able to watch our run live, we did the buoy, traveled under the pipes, and almost got our missiles through the target before the vehicle surfaced accidently. The vehicle was confused by the reflection of the green square on the surface of the water and came up too close to the surface causing the end of our run. If it wasn't for that error, we probably would have made it to the pinger and won 2nd place. Overall, we are happy about our performance at this event, as we have accomplished more than we ever have before, and learned new lessons which will lead to an improved performance next year. The students had a great time, even with several late nights working to make things happen
Thanks to everyone again for all of their support. The Robotics Club has had a fantastic year, 3rd place at IEEE SoutheastCon, 1st place at the Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition, and 4th at the AUVC. These activities are the best way to get students interested in engineering, computer science, and working in a team, giving them the opportunity to apply what they've learned in the classroom so that when they enter the workforce they can begin contributing to advanced project immediately.
(From left to right): Jonathan Mohlenhoff - Team Captain, Jacqueline Nelson, Gary Stein - Graduate Student Adviser, Cassondra Puklavage, Daniel Barber - Faculty Adviser, and David Adams
UCF Inducts Record Class of Millionaires
A record 32 researchers and their support staff from the Office of Research and Commercialization were recognized last week in what has become a much-anticipated campus tradition – induction into the UCF Millionaires Club. Researchers in areas ranging from education to simulation to photonics made the ninth edition of the list, which began in 2000 to celebrate the accomplishments of highly funded researchers, much in the same manner that universities traditionally celebrate the success of sports teams. The sole criteria for entrée into the exclusive order is external sponsored research funding of $1 million or more during a given fiscal year. The club has grown from the inaugural class of six researchers in 2000, who cumulatively received $11.7 million, to the 2008 class which received a total of $60.4 million. “There are many ways to analyze the growth of research and commercialization at UCF but recognizing the hard work and intellectual power that is rewarded in the extremely competitive world of external research funding is one of the truest indicators of our success,” said MJ Soileau, vice president for research and commercialization. Research funding at the university has grown exponentially in the past decade, from $37.5 million in 1999 to the new record high of $122.8 million in 2008. Despite the economic turbulence of the last year, research funding continued to grow, rising more than 17 percent in two years. The College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the Institute for Simulation and Training were the three units with the most external funding in 2008, reflected in the makeup of the year’s class of millionaires. Sandra Robinson, dean of the College of Education, has ranked at the top of the millionaires list six of nine years, with funding from the Florida Department of Education for development of programs in literacy and reading. Andrew Daire, an associate professor of education who leads the UCF Marriage & Family Research Institute, was inducted in the club for the first time for a federally funded project that is helping 800 low and moderate income couples get the help they need to keep their marriages, their families, and ultimately the community, strong. Another first-timer millionaire, Necati Catbas, an assistant professor in civil, environmental and construction engineering, is conducting research that is leading to new tools for better predicting the strength and lifespan of bridges. Also recognized were more than 30 support staff from the Office of Research and Commercialization who assisted in the preparation and submission of 1,395 proposals in 2008, and the management of grants received. “We’re very proud of our support staff and the invaluable role they play in all areas of sponsored research, from the management of proposals and grants to making sure we comply with federal standards and regulations,” said Tom O’Neal, associate Vice President for Research and Commercialization. “None of this growth would be possible without the dedication of our entire team of researchers and staff.” Article courtesy of UCF’s Office of Research and Commercialization
www.research.ucf.edu/News/Millionaires08.html.
UCF Inducts Record Class of Millionaires
A record 32 researchers and their support staff from the Office of Research and Commercialization were recognized last week in what has become a much-anticipated campus tradition – induction into the UCF Millionaires Club. Researchers in areas ranging from education to simulation to photonics made the ninth edition of the list, which began in 2000 to celebrate the accomplishments of highly funded researchers, much in the same manner that universities traditionally celebrate the success of sports teams. The sole criteria for entrée into the exclusive order is external sponsored research funding of $1 million or more during a given fiscal year. The club has grown from the inaugural class of six researchers in 2000, who cumulatively received $11.7 million, to the 2008 class which received a total of $60.4 million. “There are many ways to analyze the growth of research and commercialization at UCF but recognizing the hard work and intellectual power that is rewarded in the extremely competitive world of external research funding is one of the truest indicators of our success,” said MJ Soileau, vice president for research and commercialization. Research funding at the university has grown exponentially in the past decade, from $37.5 million in 1999 to the new record high of $122.8 million in 2008. Despite the economic turbulence of the last year, research funding continued to grow, rising more than 17 percent in two years. The College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the Institute for Simulation and Training were the three units with the most external funding in 2008, reflected in the makeup of the year’s class of millionaires. Sandra Robinson, dean of the College of Education, has ranked at the top of the millionaires list six of nine years, with funding from the Florida Department of Education for development of programs in literacy and reading. Andrew Daire, an associate professor of education who leads the UCF Marriage & Family Research Institute, was inducted in the club for the first time for a federally funded project that is helping 800 low and moderate income couples get the help they need to keep their marriages, their families, and ultimately the community, strong. Another first-timer millionaire, Necati Catbas, an assistant professor in civil, environmental and construction engineering, is conducting research that is leading to new tools for better predicting the strength and lifespan of bridges. Also recognized were more than 30 support staff from the Office of Research and Commercialization who assisted in the preparation and submission of 1,395 proposals in 2008, and the management of grants received. “We’re very proud of our support staff and the invaluable role they play in all areas of sponsored research, from the management of proposals and grants to making sure we comply with federal standards and regulations,” said Tom O’Neal, associate Vice President for Research and Commercialization. “None of this growth would be possible without the dedication of our entire team of researchers and staff.” Article courtesy of UCF’s Office of Research and Commercialization
www.research.ucf.edu/News/Millionaires08.html.
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Interactions and Training with Unmanned Systems
and the Nintendo Wiimote
Paul Varcholik, Daniel Barber, Denise Nicholson
Institute of Simulation & Training
University of Central Florida
Orlando, Florida
pvarchol@ist.ucf.edu, dbarber@ist.ucf.edu, dnichols@ist.ucf.edu
ABSTRACT As unmanned systems continue to evolve and their presence becomes more prolific, new methods are needed for training people to interact with these systems. Likewise, new interfaces must be developed to take advantage of the increasing capabilities of these platforms. However, the complexity of such interfaces must not grow in parallel with advancements in unmanned systems technology.
A common form of human communication is through the use of arm and hand gestures. Applying gesture-based communication methods to human-to-robot communication may increase the interface capabilities, resulting in less complex, natural and intuitive interfaces. In the context of military operations, hand and arm gestures (such as those listed in the Army Field Manual on Visual Signals, FM 21-60) may be used to communicate tactical information and instructions to robotic team members. We believe that a gesture-based interface provides a natural method for controlling unmanned systems and reduces training time and training costs for military personnel by reusing standard gestures.
The research presented explores these hypotheses through interactions with unmanned systems using computermediated gesture recognition. The methodology employs the Nintendo Wii Remote Controller (Wiimote) to retrieve and classify one- and two-handed gestures that are mapped to an unmanned system command set. To ensure interoperability across multiple types of unmanned systems, our technology uses the Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS); an emerging standard that provides a hardware and software independent communication framework.
In this paper, a system is presented that uses inexpensive, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology for gesture input to control multiple types of unmanned systems. A detailed discussion of the technology is provided with a focus on operator usability and training. Finally, to explore the efficacy of the interface, a usability study is presented where participants perform a series of tasks to control an unmanned system using arm and hand gestures. Link to entire paper:
http://ntsa.metapress.com/link.asp?id=m203h378m170k742 Interactions and Training with Unmanned Systems
and the Nintendo Wiimote
Paul Varcholik, Daniel Barber, Denise Nicholson
Institute of Simulation & Training
University of Central Florida
Orlando, Florida
pvarchol@ist.ucf.edu, dbarber@ist.ucf.edu, dnichols@ist.ucf.edu
ABSTRACT As unmanned systems continue to evolve and their presence becomes more prolific, new methods are needed for training people to interact with these systems. Likewise, new interfaces must be developed to take advantage of the increasing capabilities of these platforms. However, the complexity of such interfaces must not grow in parallel with advancements in unmanned systems technology.
A common form of human communication is through the use of arm and hand gestures. Applying gesture-based communication methods to human-to-robot communication may increase the interface capabilities, resulting in less complex, natural and intuitive interfaces. In the context of military operations, hand and arm gestures (such as those listed in the Army Field Manual on Visual Signals, FM 21-60) may be used to communicate tactical information and instructions to robotic team members. We believe that a gesture-based interface provides a natural method for controlling unmanned systems and reduces training time and training costs for military personnel by reusing standard gestures.
The research presented explores these hypotheses through interactions with unmanned systems using computermediated gesture recognition. The methodology employs the Nintendo Wii Remote Controller (Wiimote) to retrieve and classify one- and two-handed gestures that are mapped to an unmanned system command set. To ensure interoperability across multiple types of unmanned systems, our technology uses the Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS); an emerging standard that provides a hardware and software independent communication framework.
In this paper, a system is presented that uses inexpensive, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology for gesture input to control multiple types of unmanned systems. A detailed discussion of the technology is provided with a focus on operator usability and training. Finally, to explore the efficacy of the interface, a usability study is presented where participants perform a series of tasks to control an unmanned system using arm and hand gestures. Link to entire paper:
http://ntsa.metapress.com/link.asp?id=m203h378m170k742 |
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