ABSTRACT
Human exposures to hostile work environments can be reduced when tele-operated systems are used to remotely control manipulators in these environments. Tele-operation systems were initially developed by the nuclear industry but are currently applied in areas including surgery, construction, mining, warehousing, firefighting, undersea exploration, military operations, and space. The role of human operators in tele-operated systems varies with the level-ofautomation of the system. Some systems require only supervisory control from the operator, while many others require direct manual manipulation through a controller. However, even for highly automated systems, human operators play an important role as a backup when the system fails.
