Playstation VR Demo was shown at the 2015 PlayStation Experience in Moscone West, San Francisco, California held last Dec. 5-6. (Photo : YouTube)
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has teamed up with Sony to use PlayStation VR hardware to learn how to control robots in space.
NASA has been sending robots to space in lieu of human astronauts, but has encountered difficulties controlling them from Earth.
With its recent partnership with the Japanese video game giant, NASA has been training its operators to use PlayStation VR hardware to effectively manipulate robots sent in shuttles to orbit in space.
NASA and Sony have created a VR program dubbed the “Mighty Morphenaut,” a demo which creates a simulation for NASA’s humanoid Robonaut 2, and demonstrates all the challenges it may face while in orbit, Road to VR reported.
Utilizing Sony’s PlayStation VR headset and its Move controllers, the operator is able to “see what the robot sees,” and assume control of the robot’s hands.
Theoretically, the PlayStation VR hardware makes it easier for the operator to manipulate the robot. However, in a real world scenario, the distance between the operator and the robot is likely to cause an input delay, IGN reported.
The “Mighty Morphenaut” takes the input delay into account with a time delay mode that allows the operator to see their “ghost hands” in motion, which is followed shortly afterwards by the robot’s hands mimicking the same movement.
The new VR application demonstrated the problems surrounding delayed communication, while offering a possible solution to the input delay issue.
Despite the breakthrough, there remain a number of other scenarios to tackle, such as the robot interacting with moving objects, which add difficulties given the time delay.
