Applications of Telerobotics to Highway Maintenance

This report covers telerobotics studies from the perspective of highway maintenance automation conducted in the UC Davis Robotics Research Laboratory over the last fourteen months. Here we document the four project objectives. First, we explore the current field of telerobotics to understand the underlying principles and current technology. Second, we examine the feasibility and benefits of telerobotics application. Third, we survey an array of “off the shelf” products that can be incorporated in a highway maintenance telerobotic system. Finally, we document the design and development of our telerobotics testbed that demonstrates the utility and feasibility of telerobotics for highway maintenance and to provide practical experience with the development process. The report is concluded with a recommendation of future research and development of a mobile telerobotic system for man-in-the-bucket maintenance operations.