Environment 3D models provide efficient assistance to the supervision of telerobots. Modeling tools are necessary to acquire them in a compatible time with the mission requirements. We already developed an interactive modeling system which relies on images provided by an embedded camera. In order to reduce the modeling time, structural knowledge on the environment is integrated within specialized workshops, including dedicated primitives, constraints and modeling methods. We have demonstrated this approach with the example of a piping workshop, an application developed in collaboration with COGEMA and representative of a real environment in a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility

Describes a telerobot control principle based on a close cooperation between the man and the machine. The main feature is the management of a 3D geometrical model of the environment through successive modelling-programming-execution sequences. The principle was applied to the control of a quadrumane climbing robot. During this experimental validation phase, the authors used the interactive 3D modelling system Pyramide to acquire the 3D environment model, to program actions, and to monitor the robot motions. The authors give details of the experiments realized.<>

Teleoperation of vehicles and manipulators can become much easier if a geometric model of the environment and of the robot is provided. However in case of an accident in hostile environment, we do not have always such models. In order to answer this drawback, we conceived a Generalized Information Management System called PYRAMIDE, capable of modelling a 3-d world from camera views, of locating the robot in this environment and of producing synthetic displays for the assistance of the operator while guiding a robot. This article relates an experimental phase where PYRAMIDE was coupled with the intervention vehicle CENTAURE. Some results on the performance are given, and the potentialities offered in case of intervention are discussed.

A remote-controlled mobile robot for nuclear intervention has been developed. The concept of this tracked vehicle relies on variable geometry and active stability principles. To allow the human operator to make full sue of CENTAURE original features, a control strategy is being studied, based on a bilateral master-slave approach which has provided outstanding achievements for manipulator control. An experimental test bed has been built which includes a force reflecting six-degree-of-freedom master arm, and preliminary results are promising for vehicle CAT (computer-aided teleoperation) control.<>

The paper gives an overview of the different aspects of Nuclear services (Intervention, Decomissioning, Maintenance). A presentation of today and future needs in these fields for Teleoperation with sensor based controls is reviewed. The present achievements of French efforts in CAT (computer assisted Teleoperation) applied to bilateral force feedback Telemanipulators is derived.