Modeling and Classifying Six-Dimensional Trajectories for Teleoperation Under a Time Delay

Within the context of teleoperating the JSC Robonaut humanoid robot under 2-10 second time delays, this paper explores the technical problem of modeling and classifying human motions represented as six-dimensional (position and orientation) trajectories. A dual path research agenda is reviewed which explored both deterministic approaches and stochastic approaches using Hidden Markov Models. Finally, recent results are shown from a new model which represents the fusion of these two research paths. Questions are also raised about the possibility of automatically generating autonomous actions by reusing the same predictive models of human behavior to be the source of autonomous control. This approach changes the role of teleoperation from being a stand-in for autonomy into the first data collection step for developing generative models capable of autonomous control of the robot.