Over the years, many different traits have tried to define human beings, but to be completely honest with you, none have done a better job than our tendency to improve on a consistent basis. This relentless pursuit to get better, no matter the circumstances, has empowered the world to clock some huge milestones, with technology emerging as quite a major member of the group. The reason why we hold technology in such a high regard is, by and large, predicated upon its skill-set, which guided us towards a reality that nobody could have ever imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, if we look beyond the surface for one hot second, it will become abundantly clear how the whole runner was also very much inspired from the way we applied those skills across a real world environment. The latter component, in fact, did a lot to give the creation a spectrum-wide presence, and as a result, initiate a full-blown tech revolution. Of course, this revolution eventually went on to scale up the human experience through some outright unique avenues, but even after achieving a feat so notable, technology will somehow continue to bring forth the right goods. The same has turned more and more evident in recent times, and assuming one new discovery ends up with the desired impact, it will only put that trend on a higher pedestal moving forward.

The researching team at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has successfully developed a brand-new framework, which provides the world with a seamless way to observe and control robotic sampling processes. Named Shared Autonomy for Remote Collaboration (SHARC), the framework allows multiple remote operators to foster real-time collaboration, a collaboration where they can issue goal-directed commands to the robot through simple speech and hand gestures while wearing virtual reality goggles in an intuitive three-dimensional workspace representation. In a more practical sense, though, SHARC facilitates human-robot interaction so to delegate responsibilities between two parties based on their complementary strengths. This means the robot can handle kinematics, motion planning, obstacle avoidance, and other low-level tasks. On the other hand, the human operator will be entrusted with tasks of high-level scene understanding, goal selection, and task-level planning. Making the whole proposition all the more significant is the fact that SHARC offers you a shot at parallel rather than a sequential operation. Another detail worth a mention here would be how the framework lets you conduct shipboard operations and control robotic manipulators” like on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) “using only a basic internet connection and consumer-grade hardware.

When quizzed regarding a paper connected to their discovery, titled “Enhancing scientific exploration of the deep sea through shared autonomy in remote manipulation,” Matthew Walter, associate professor at Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC) and co-author of the paper said:

“Whether it is on land, air, or in the ocean, most robots that operate today do so in one of two distinctly different ways: full autonomy or full remote control by highly trained pilots, with the latter being standard for settings like underwater manipulation that involve complex interactions between robots and their environment. This paper describes a new framework that enables robots to operate in between these two extremes in a way that takes advantage of the complementary capabilities of robots and humans,”

The researchers tested their latest brainchild during an oceanographic expedition in the San Pedro Basin of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Here, they operated WHOI’s Nereid Under Ice (NUI) hybrid ROV from thousands of kilometers away using SHARC’s virtual reality and desktop interfaces. The members, although segregated in locations across Chicago, Boston, and Woods Hole, jointly took on physical push core sample and recorded in-situ X-ray fluorescence measurements of seafloor microbial mats and sediments at water depths exceeding 1000 meters.

“With SHARC, our shore-side team was able to collect seafloor samples from over 4000 kilometers away without specialized hardware or extensive prior training. In the future, I believe that further advancements in robotics and autonomy research can someday enable shore-side scientists, students, and enthusiasts to actively participate in and contribute to deep-ocean exploration operations as they occur, which in turn can help to foster ocean literacy among the general public,” said Amy Phung, leader author on the study and a student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering graduate degree program.