Application of pattern recognition techniques to a flying robotic arm

The combination of aging nuclear power plants and tightening radiation dosage regulations for maintenance workers could very well cause future nuclear reactor maintenance to be mostly done by remote manipulators and robotic devices. The need for such remote systems is likely to appear before purely automatic devices become feasible. In the long run pattern recognition techniques will surely be used; and, we think that these techniques can reduce the operator work load in near-term systems. Several concepts in the use of TV image recognition techniques for control of links of a manipulator arm are presented. Equations of motion and control laws for two cases are developed. Initial results indicate that in some tasks this human operator hand-off of hand-eye coordination to machine can improve information to operator and speed of operation and will likely reduce operator fatique.