NRI-SMALL: WHOLE-BODY TELEMANIPULATION OF THE DREAMER HUMANOID ROBOT ON ROUGH TERRAINS USING A HAND EXOSKELETON (EXODREAM) TO REVIVE AND IMPROVE THE STATE OF MANUFACTURING IN THE US WE NEED TO CREATE ROBOTIC TECHNOLOGIES THATCAN ENABLE SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZE MANUFACTURING BUSINESSES (SMMBS) TO BECOME WORLDWIDE COMPETITIVE. MOBILE ROBOTS WITH HIGH DEXTERITY CONTROLLED REMOTELY BY A TELE-MANIPULATION SYSTEM WILL BE MOST EFFECTIVE IN THE EVER CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS OF SMMBS. HOWEVER THE CURRENT STATE-OF-THE-ART OF DEXTEROUS ROBOTS IS FAR FROM READY TO BE UTILIZED BY SMMBS BECAUSE OF CHALLENGES RELATED TO ROBOT HARDWARE CONTROL INTERFACES AND SOFTWARE SYSTEMS. CONSISTENT WITH THE NRI'S OBJECTIVE OF BUILDING 'CO-ROBOTS' OUR LONG-TERM GOAL IS TO DEVELOP A CONTROL FRAMEWORK FOR THE TELE-MANIPULATION OF LOW-COST MOBILE AND DEXTEROUS ROBOTS BY KEEPING HUMANS AT THE CENTER OF THE CONTROL LOOP. IN THIS PROJECT OUR PLAN IS TO I) DEVELOP A WHOLE BODY COMPLIANT CONTROL AND MODELING PARADIGM FOR A HUMANOID ROBOT CALLEDDREAMER II) DESIGN AND DEVELOP A NOVEL HAND EXOSKELETON FOR THE TELEMANIPULATION OF DREAMER AND III)DEVELOP A COMPUTATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR TRANSFERRING THE EXOSKELETON CONTROL SKILLS TO TELEMANIPULATION OF THE DREAMER IN COMPLEX AND CHANGING MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENTS.PHYSICAL HUMAN ROBOT INTERACTION (PHRI) IS ONE OF THE EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN HUMAN-CENTERED ROBOTICS HOWEVER A GENERAL THEORETICAL AND COMPUTATIONAL FRAMEWORK TO MODEL AND CONTROL PHRI SYSTEMS HAS NOT YET BEEN CONSOLIDATED. OUR GOAL IS TO LEVERAGE OUR PREVIOUS WORK ON WHOLE-BODY MODELING AND CONTROL AND INTEGRATE NEW CONCEPTS OF PHRI TO CREATE A COMPUTATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE TO EFFECTIVELY CONTROLMOBILE HUMANOID ROBOTS IN MANUFACTURING SETTINGS. THE DESIGN OF THE HAND EXOSKELETON WILL BE DRIVEN BY THE FACT THAT THE HUMAN HAND MOVEMENTS ARE GREATLY INFLUENCED BY THE HAND JOINT STIFFNESS AND MATCHING THE STIFFNESS IN THE EXOSKELETON WITH MECHANISMS FOR VARIABLE JOINT STIFFNESS WILL LEAD TO MORE NATURAL CONTROL AND ALLOW FOR TUNING FORCE FEEDBACK. IN THE TELEMANIPULATION OF THE DREAMER WE WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE HIGHER LEVEL DECISION MAKING BY THE USER AND THE LOWER LEVEL AUTOMATIC CONTROL ENDOWED BY THE ROBOT CONTROL INTERFACES. THE CHALLENGING TRADEOFFIN THE TELEMANIPULATION OF THE DREAMER WITH THE HAND EXOSKELETON IS THAT ON ONE HAND WE WANT TO KEEP THE OPERATOR AWAY FROM THE NITTY-GRITTY OF LOW-LEVEL CONTROL BUT ON THE OTHER HAND WE WANT TO IMMERSE THE OPERATOR IN THE HIGH-LEVEL CONTROL DECISIONS TO PROVIDE THE ABILITY TO GUIDE COMPLEX CONTROL TASKS. WE WILL ADDRESS THE COMBINATION OF THESE TWO CAPABILITIES BY EXPLORING NEW CONCEPTS ON THE AREA OF SHARED CONTROL INTERFACES.