AUTHOR=Wonsick Murphy , Long Philip , Önol Aykut Özgün , Wang Maozhen , Padır Taşkın TITLE=A Holistic Approach to Human-Supervised Humanoid Robot Operations in Extreme Environments JOURNAL=Frontiers in Robotics and AI VOLUME=8 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/robotics-and-ai/articles/10.3389/frobt.2021.550644 DOI=10.3389/frobt.2021.550644 ISSN=2296-9144 ABSTRACT=

Nuclear energy will play a critical role in meeting clean energy targets worldwide. However, nuclear environments are dangerous for humans to operate in due to the presence of highly radioactive materials. Robots can help address this issue by allowing remote access to nuclear and other highly hazardous facilities under human supervision to perform inspection and maintenance tasks during normal operations, help with clean-up missions, and aid in decommissioning. This paper presents our research to help realize humanoid robots in supervisory roles in nuclear environments. Our research focuses on National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA’s) humanoid robot, Valkyrie, in the areas of constrained manipulation and motion planning, increasing stability using support contact, dynamic non-prehensile manipulation, locomotion on deformable terrains, and human-in-the-loop control interfaces.