Robotic Teleoperation Intention Estimation via Gaze and Motion Analysis

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Robotic teleoperation faces challenges such as communication delays, inaccurate positioning, and differences between human operators' intentions and remote robotic actions due to noise and variability in real-world conditions, leading to inefficiencies and potential failures in tasks like warehouse management, medical surgeries, and hazardous environments.

Innovation Solution

A system for robotic teleoperation intention estimation that uses a neural network to analyze motion and gaze data from human operators, generating latent actions and temporally associated inferences, and a dynamic transition model to infer intentions with probabilistic uncertainty, allowing robotic elements to perform tasks autonomously without direct control signals, using contrastive learning and hierarchical clustering to refine the model.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If human operators directly control robotic elements in real-time, then task execution accuracy is maintained, but communication delays and operator workload reduce productivity

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetask execution efficiencyVSAvoidtask execution accuracy
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by training the neural network and transition model offline with大量 teleoperation data before actual use. The model learns to predict robotic element actions and human intentions in advance, enabling autonomous execution without real-time operator intervention for routine tasks, thus improving productivity while maintaining reliability through pre-learned accuracy

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The robotic system serves itself by using the trained neural network to autonomously predict and execute actions based on human intention estimation. The system self-corrects positioning errors and adapts to environmental changes without continuous operator input, reducing communication delays impact while maintaining task accuracy through self-learning capabilities

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

2Measurement precision

If the system uses complex neural networks and dynamic transition models to estimate human intentions, then task execution accuracy improves, but system complexity and computational requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveintention estimation accuracyVSAvoidsystem architectural complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the intention estimation problem into distinct components: a neural network for extracting features from motion and gaze data, a transition model for predicting action sequences, and an intention hierarchy for organizing high-level goals. This modular segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently while maintaining overall accuracy, reducing the burden on any single system element

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The neural network and transition model are trained offline with large datasets before deployment. This preliminary training phase pre-computes the complex relationships between human inputs and robotic actions, so that during actual teleoperation, the system only needs to query the pre-trained models, significantly reducing real-time computational complexity while maintaining high estimation accuracy

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

3Ease of operation

If the robotic system autonomously performs tasks based on inferred intentions, then operator workload is reduced, but reliability decreases due to potential misinterpretation of human intentions

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveoperator workloadVSAvoidintention interpretation accuracy
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where the predicted robotic actions and estimated intentions are continuously monitored and compared with actual operator inputs and environmental outcomes. The neural network and transition model are refined using this feedback through contrastive learning and Bayesian hierarchical modeling, improving intention interpretation accuracy over time while maintaining low operator workload through autonomous execution

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The system dynamically adjusts the level of autonomy based on task criticality and confidence in intention estimation. For high-stakes tasks or uncertain predictions, the system requests clarification from the operator, while for routine tasks with high confidence, it executes autonomously. This dynamic adjustment maintains reliability by involving operators when needed while reducing workload through autonomous handling of predictable tasks

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentUS20250091214A1Systems and methods for robotic teleoperation intention estimation
Publication Date: 2025.03.20 HONDA MOTOR CO LTD
  • US20250091214A1 patent drawing
  • US20250091214A1 patent drawing
  • US20250091214A1 patent drawing

AI summary

Systems and methods for robotic teleoperation are provided. The system receives motion input and gaze data of a human operator performing a robotic teleoperation task, and a plurality of features are extracted from the received data. A recurrent neural network determines latent actions from the extracted features and generates temporally associated action inferences. A model determines inferred intention from a sequenced pair of action inferences, an intention hierarchy, and a probabilistic uncertainty function. A teleoperated robotic element performs a task associated with the inferred intention without a corresponding control signal from the human operator. The recurrent neural network is trained using extracted features and contrastive learning. The intention hierarchy is generated from action inferences. The probabilistic uncertainty function is generated using Bayesian hierarchical modeling. The system and method improves robotic teleoperation by estimating the intention of the human operator.