Control of camera viewpoint plays a vital role in many teleoperation activities, as watching live video streams is still the fundamental way for operators to obtain situational awareness from remote environments. Motivated by a real-world industrial setting in mining teleoperation, we explore several possible solutions to resolve a common multi-tasking situation where an operator is required to control a robot and simultaneously perform remote camera operation. Conventional control interfaces are predominantly used in such teleoperation settings, but could overload an operator's hand-operation capability, and require frequent attention switches and thus could decrease productivity. We report on an empirical user study in a model multi-tasking teleoperation setting where the user has a main task which requires their attention. We compare three different camera viewpoint control models: (1) dual manual control, (2) natural interaction (combining eye gaze and head motion) and (3) autonomous tracking. The results indicate the advantages of using the natural interaction model, while the manual control model performed the worst.

An important aspect of teleoperation is situational awareness through visualization. The actual operation and control of a remote machine must be supported by an interface which provides enough information through visualization from a remote location to complete a task. This can be achieved with a Mixed Reality (MR) environment. The concept is to combine information from the real world and a virtual world. An experiment was conducted to assess the differences between two platforms and to determine interface features required to maximize operator performance and satisfaction. The result indicates that both mixed reality environments tested were suitable for teleoperation where sufficient information to perform the task could be modeled in the virtual world. However, one of the environments turned out to be superior where the task required information in the video but not modeled in the virtual environment. The preferred environment provided overlays on the video that were updated live as the model was manipulated where the other environment updated video overlays on completion of the manipulation.

In general, conventional control interfaces such as joysticks, switches, and wheels are predominantly used in teleoperation. However, operators normally have to control multiple complex devices simultaneously. For example, controlling a rock breaker and a remote camera at the same time in mining teleoperation. This overloads the operator’s control capability of using hands, increases workload and reduces productivity. We present a novel gaze-driven remote camera control with an implemented prototype, which follows a simple and natural design principle: “Whatever you look at on the screen, it moves to the centre!”. A user study of modeled hands-busy experiment has been conducted, comparing the performance of using gaze-driven control and traditional joystick control through both objective measures and subjective measures. The experimental results clearly show the gaze-driven control significantly outperformed the conventional joystick control.

Families of Costas arrays with low pairwise cross-correlation are sought. The two families of all exponential Welch arrays and all Golomb arrays generated in a certain finite field are specifically studied, and the maximal cross-correlation is determined by exhaustive search. Mathematically rigorous explanations for some of the observed results are presented, a surprising link between Welch and Golomb arrays is revealed, and what remains to be proved is stated precisely. The results suggest that the families with uniformly low cross-correlation correspond to finite fields whose size is a safe prime power.

A Costas array is an arrangement of N dots on an N -by- N grid, one per row, one per column, such that no two dots share the same displacement vector with any other pair. Costas arrays have applications in SONAR/RADAR systems, communication systems, cryptography, and other areas. We present a standardization of notation and language which can be used to discuss Costas array generation techniques and array manipulations. Using this standardization we can concisely and clearly state various theorems about Costas arrays, including several new theorems about the symmetries of Costas arrays. We also define labels for each array (generated, emergent, and sporadic), which describe whether the array is generated using a known technique, generated using a semiempirical variation of a known technique, or of unexplained origin. A new method for obtaining emergent Costas arrays, the DRT expansion, is also given here for the first time. A MATLAB Costas array toolbox has also been developed which implements the proposed standardization. The toolbox contains a comprehensive set of functions covering Costas array generation, manipulation and classification.

We have demonstrated the use of low-cost sensing devices for intelligent control of typical commercial energy loads: cool rooms for keeping produce fresh and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems for buildings. We provide the sensing devices - Berkeley Motes and X10 sensing and switching equipment - with a presence on the Internet to permit sophisticated applications to access their data and control their electrical loads. The ad hoc sensor network is connected to the mobile phone network through a light-weight gateway for long-haul communications. Local control provides failsafe default behaviour in the absence of remote control or when communication is lost. We propose to use this network to deploy agent-based software to manage distributed energy resources, including local generation plants as well as loads. Our aim is to provide new ways for small-to-medium enterprises, energy retailers, and energy network businesses to obtain commercial benefits in a deregulated energy market.

Usher, a user interface for an Internet telerobot has been developed. It overlays multiple monoscopic images of the robot's environment with a three-dimensional stick figure visualization of the robot's 5 degrees of freedom. The operator drags the elements of this visualization with a pointing device to obtain additional depth cues, measure size, location and orientation of objects, and to control the manipulator. This paper describes the interface design from a human-computer interaction perspective. The user interface design was developed by applying the ecological approach of visual perception to a data visualization of the 5 degrees of freedom. This leads to a simple stick-figure-like structure that can be used to specify a pose in 3D space using only two-dimensional input devices. The user interface is implemented as a Java applet and can be used to control Australia's Telerobot on the Web at http://telerobot.mech.uwa.edu.au/.