We present a system for generation and recognition of oscillatory gestures. Inspired by gestures used in two representative human-to-human control areas, we consider a set of oscillatory motions and refine from them a 24 gesture lexicon. Each gesture is modeled as a dynamical system with added geometric constraints to allow for real time gesture recognition using a small amount of processing time and memory. The gestures are used to control a pan-tilt camera neck. We propose extensions for use in areas such as mobile robot control and telerobotics.

The authors have coined the term teleautonomous to describe methods for producing intelligent action at a distance. Teleautomation goes beyond autonomous control in that it blends in human intelligence and action as appropriate. It goes beyond teleoperation in that it incorporates as much autonomy as is possible or reasonable. A novel approach for solving one of the fundamental problems facing teleautonomous systems is discussed in detail: the need to overcome time delays due to telemetry and signal propagation. Concepts called time and position clutches are introduced; these allow the time and position frames, respectively, between the local user control and the remote device being controlled to be desynchronized. The design and implementation of these mechanisms lead to substantial telemanipulation performance improvements, including the novel result of improvements even in the absence of time delays. The controls also yield a simple protocol for handoffs of the control of manipulation tasks between local operators and remote systems.>

As a result of recent advances in artificial intelligence, human cognitive modelling, autonomous systems and telerobotics, there is an opportunity to broaden our concepts of technology for projecting action at a distance. We draw on these advances to develop a conceptual and architectural framework that enables efficient projection in time and space of intermingled manipulation and cognition tasks. Where AI-based autonomous systems have previously been concerned with human supervisory intervention primarily at a cognitive level, we add methods for rendezvous, capture and rehandoff of embedded manipulation tasks. Where telerobotics has been concerned with the projection of sensory-motor manipulation, we add the projection of cognitive processing. Thus extended, the two technologies mirror one another and merge into one of "tele-autonomous systems". We introduce notions of how the sensory, cognitive and motor functions of tele-autonomous systems can be factored and transferred back and forth between human and machine. We illustrate how the times to complete tele-autonomous tasks can be reduced through time and space constraint relaxations effected through simple controls: We employ the concepts of forward simulation and predictor display, augmented by "time and position clutches", "time ratio controls" and "time brakes", to control the resulting manipulation paths and event transitions. We sketch some generic architectural and human interface implications of these methods. Finally, we describe our environment for exploring these methods and the results of some recent experiments.