EVEREST: a virtual reality interface to program a teleoperated mission

This paper describes a 3D graphical interface to program a teleoperated mission in nuclear environment. This systems has been developed in CEA-STR. The operator uses a graphical representation based on the geometrical model of the remote site to specify and simulate a teleoperated mission. We concentrated our efforts to get a simple and intuitive man-machine communication, in order to allow an operator, not a specialist in computer science or robotics, to prepare his own mission. The graphical language we propose uses the final user natural language to program teleoperated missions through a virtual reality interface. The functional metaphor chosen is the manufacturing workshop. The first part of this paper presents problems relative to teleoperation in the nuclear field. We especially explain why we need a simple and ergonomic programming interface. The second part is dedicated to the presentation of the graphical language. The third part shows that preliminary results demonstrate the efficiency of the graphical language. We conclude by presenting perspectives for future works