Assessing teleoperation interfaces using task performance for glovebox operations: a step towards assisted autonomy

Tele-manipulation is indispensable for the nuclear industry, since teleoperated robots eliminate the radiation hazard problem for the operator. However, understanding the performance limits of teleoperated robots for nuclear decommissioning tasks is not clearly answered in the literature. We evaluate the performance of tele-manipulation of a robotic arm inside a glovebox by designing a test based on radiation surveying and compare it to manual task execution. Our results show that the current commercial systems are flexible, yet insufficient, as their task performance is significantly lower compared to manual operation.