Voice control has also been  proposed  forcry”  much  as a touch-t)'pist  does。 In the  first

is the security of a program editing capability

use  aboard  the  space  station (6)—{83。

Ilécase。 the  time  of  response  to a dev iant  con-

of   the   system。   Under   no circumstances

prime  area  for application  v•'ould  be  control       ditio       a›  be  excessive。  In the second case。 of  some  functions  of  robots  used  for  intra-    ‹here  is  an  increased  probability   of  a   sec- and  extravehicular  inspection。  assembly       -         ondap'  error  being   introduced   by'  the oper-

nance  when  a  crewmember  is  serving  in   aA  •oic        og=nition  system  could reduce supervisory  capacity  or  the  system  is  oper-   we response time required  from the  operator。 ating  in a teleoperatioii  mode。  Voice       t    1       The probabilip'  of  pushing  the  wrong button of sensors and process variable   WCiUld  fshould  similarly  be  reduced。  Also,  operator the crewmember’s  hands for other tasks,  such         fatigue  should  be minimized。

as  direct  control  or  override  of  the manipu-Since  the  operator  can  continuously mon-

should any unauthorized person be able to enter this prog=rammine mode and alter the robot’s program。 A voice recognition system can provide the necessai)' securit) by allow- ing access only' for inpiduals who are au- thorized and whose voices can be identified by the system。

Background

lator  motion。   Similarly。  the  workload  asso-

ciated with control of many onboard exper- iments could be eased through the use of this technology。

This paper describes the application of voice recognition  for control of a  robotic

Presented at the 1986 IEEE International Confer- ence on Systems。 Man。 and Cybemetics, held in Atlanta, Georgia。 October 14— 17。 1986。 J。 Kev in Watson and Douglas M。 Todd are with the Rock-

etdy ne Dix’ision of Rockwell International。 Suite

itor the process during override input, the effect of the chanp•e can be obsea'ed more quickly。 Thus。 if the desired value is ex- ceeded and reverse correction is required, it should be accomplished more quickly, al- 1oxvinp• less overshoot。 This reduction in os- cillation about the desired value makes the system more stable。

Another factor that can be improved is op- erator safety。 In a safety-critical situation。 the robot’s operation can be halted imme- diately' by' use of the “emergency' stop,”  or

Robotic welding is under development by NASA and Rocketdyne  for the automation of welds on the Space Shuttle Main Engine that are presently' made manually。 The pro- grammability of a robot can reduce the per- centage of welding defects through a com- bination of consistency' and repeatability unattainable by its human counterparts。 To do this, the robot is programmed to a nom- inal weld path and level of weld process pa- rameters (i。e。 , current, travel speed。 voltage, wire addition rate)。 Some adjustment of these