Augmented Reality Remote Operation of Dual Arm Manipulators in Hot Boxes

TL;DR

This paper presents an augmented reality system using HoloLens 2 for remotely operating dual-arm robots inside hot cells, enhancing safety and precision in nuclear laboratories through real-time visualization and virtual fixtures.

Contribution

The work introduces an AR-based teleoperation system with real-time 3D visualization, live video streaming, and virtual fixtures for remote manipulation in hazardous environments.

Findings

Successful implementation of AR teleoperation with dual-arm robots

Enhanced situational awareness through 3D point cloud visualization

Improved manipulation accuracy with virtual fixtures

Abstract

In nuclear isotope and chemistry laboratories, hot cells and gloveboxes provide scientists with a controlled and safe environment to perform experiments. Working on experiments in these isolated containment cells requires scientists to be physically present. For hot cell work today, scientists manipulate equipment and radioactive material inside through a bilateral mechanical control mechanism. Motions produced outside the cell with the master control levers are mechanically transferred to the internal grippers inside the shielded containment cell. There is a growing need to have the capability to conduct experiments within these cells remotely. A simple method to enable remote manipulations within hot cell and glovebox cells is to mount two robotic arms inside a box to mimic the motions of human hands. An AR application was built in this work to allow a user wearing a Microsoft HoloLens 2 headset to teleoperate dual arm manipulators by grasping robotic end-effector digital replicas in AR from a remote location. In addition to the real-time replica of the physical robotic arms in AR, the application enables users to view a live video stream attached to the robotic arms and parse a 3D point cloud of 3D objects in their remote AR environment for better situational awareness. This work also provides users with virtual fixture to assist in manipulation and other teleoperation tasks.