STI: Development of an Infrastructure for Real-Time Super Media over the Internet

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

The proposed research aims to develop and experimentally test new methods, algorithms, and tools to establish an infrastructure for real-time super media transport over the Internet to support tele operations. Super media includes video, audio, haptic, temperature, control commands andother media. As a result of this research, improvements will occur in the manner that people buy, sell, learn, and explore via the Internet by improving the ones ability to touch, feel, and manipulate an object over the Internet. For example, new opportunities are possible when the sense of touch is achieved by receiving haptic information due to remote commands of touch, especially when it may be combined with sight and sound in areas of tele-medicine to enable a physician to feel the patient at a remote location for abnormalities, or in tele-commerce to allow a customer to touch and manipulate an item before its purchase. Tele-education opportunities enable students to feel objects to enhance learning that otherwise would be inaccessible to them. Further opportunities are open in areas of handing waste materials, tele-manufacturing, and games and entertainment. The major merits of this proposed research include (i) Development of a perceptive reference frame for Internet-based real-time teleoperations to overcome random communication time-delays; (ii)Development of a new planning and control method in a perceptive reference frame to achieve a stable force reflected teleoperation; (iii) Development of QoS parameters for measuring network quality of the Internet during real-time tele operation; (iv) Development of QoS driven dynamic resources allocation scheme to plan the teleoperation tasks and allocate the available Internet resources to ensure the QoS of the tele robotic services; (v) Development of Supermedia Application Tools for the Internet (SATIN) for implementation of the proposed QoS based control and resource allocation methods. The success of this project will not only provide important technologies to further development of the Internet infrastructure and control systems that use the Internet, but will also contribute to the development of the future manpower base of innovative and competent engineers and scientists by utilizing the recent advances in Internet, information, and robotics technologies. This project will have broad impacts in both education and society. The proposed research and education effort will be incorporated into College strategies for improving representation of under represented groups and minorities. The PIs plan to incorporate the proposed research activities into departmental undergraduate courses, such as the capstone courses, and Computer Integrated Manufacturing course, which the PIs teach. Since the researchers have already participated in collaborative projects with researchers in Asia and Europe, it is proposed that super media transport would enable an opportunity to have collaboration among student design groups across different continents. This activity would promote undergraduate student participation as well as opportunities for sharing cultural experiences.