The presentations and on-site demonstrations illustrated the ability to use augmented reality headsets to provide operators intuitive, hands-free interactions with autonomous platforms.
Members of The University of Texas at Austin's Nuclear and Applied Robotics Group, led by Research Professor Mitch Pryor, presented at Sandia National Laboratories’ 8th Annual XR Conference in July. The presentations and on-site demonstrations illustrated the ability to use augmented reality headsets to provide operators intuitive, hands-free interactions with autonomous platforms, as well as explored a variety of ways to allow users to intuitively visualize radiation levels and radiation sources in the field.
Senior Robotics Research Engineer Fabian Parra presented projects that integrate radiation sensing into the group's Augmented Robot Environment (AugRE), including visualizing data from a Compton camera as a heatmap overlaid on the physical environment. The presentation also featured a virtual reality environment developed in collaboration with Senior Engineering Scientist Soha Aslam.
Research Scientist Associate Corrie Van Sice and Ph.D. candidate Frank Regal demonstrated AugRE's capabilities for human-robot teaming in the field, highlighting how mixed reality can help operators supervise, command and control multiple robots while maintaining situational awareness.
Together, the presentations demonstrated how extended reality technologies can improve safety, simplify remote coordination, and support robotic operations in complex environments.
