The M-ROVER
Remote Laboratory Project
The M-ROVER is a Remote Operated Vehicle available at the University of Michigan for exploration of all the Laurentian Great Lakes. It has three axis translations and yaw rotation, can travel up to three knots on the surface, and 3/4 knots vertical and laterally underwater. Its maximum depth is 1000 meters. It has an attached three degree of freedom arm, a high resolution pan/tilt color video camera, and a high resolution sonar imaging system.
In the M-ROVER project, the visual informal stream from a distant site
is intercepted, visual command information is added to the video
stream by using a Visual Signaler that encodes the desired control
actions, and the merged stream is sent back to the original site. The
added visual control information is then decoded by image processing
techniques in a Visual Interpreter at the remote end to determine the
intended gestural control command. This method and architecture for
iconic-based gestural control provides a simple yet elegant way for
humans to remotely control actuated mechanisms in a basic two-way
video environment.
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