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T0185-P

Evaluation of the BioSleeve Gesture Control Interface for Telerobotics in Microgravity

PI: Christopher Assad, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory

JPL has developed a “BioSleeve” gesture control interface that can currently recognize 20 hand and finger gestures at >95% accuracy during prototype validations in the laboratory environment. It combines an array of electromyography (EMG) and inertial/magnetic field (IMU or MARG) sensors in a forearm sleeve that measures muscle activity and arm pose, with robust algorithms in embedded software for gesture recognition and command generation. This technology is designed to help address challenges identified in NASA’s Space Technology Roadmap in the area of Human-Systems Interfaces for dexterous telerobotic control, gesture control, and robot telesupervision.

This flight demonstration is a continuation of the work performed under T0161.

Technology Areas (?)
  • TA04 Robotics, Tele-Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Technology Maturation

The specific objectives for the parabolic flights are to: (1) evaluate effects of the microgravity environment on gesture recognition performance, compared to performance in ground tests, after training both on the ground and during flight; and (2) demonstrate BioSleeve interface utility in the microgravity environment by performing a simulated steering/grappling task by an astronaut anchored to the ISS Canadarm2 end effector. The proposed experiments will generate gesture recognition results th

Future Customers

The BioSleeve output can be mapped into various command libraries for different robotic platforms. NASA and commercial space companies could use BioSleeve gesture control technology for human-robot interactions such as: natural hand gestures to direct surface rovers by an astronaut on EVA; intuitive telerobotic control for remote manipulation and for high degree-of-freedom robots such as Robonaut and Canadarm2 on ISS; and force control for power-assisted EVA gloves or exoskeletons.

Technology Details

  • Selection Date
    NASA Internal (Apr 2017)
  • Program Status
    Active
  • Current TRL (?)
    Unknown
    Successful FOP Flights
  • 1 Parabolic

Development Team

Web Accessibility and Privacy Notices Curator: Alexander van Dijk Responsible NASA Official: Stephan Ord Last Update: November 16, 2018