Teaching Robots to Handle Nuclear Waste: A Teleoperation-Based Learning Approach<

Abstract: This paper presents a Learning from Teleoperation (LfT) framework that integrates human expertise with robotic precision to enable robots to autonomously perform skills learned from human operators. The proposed framework addresses challenges in nuclear waste handling tasks, which often involve repetitive and meticulous manipulation operations. By capturing operator movements and manipulation forces during teleoperation, the framework utilizes this data to train machine learning models capable of replicating and generalizing human skills. We validate the effectiveness of the LfT framework through its application to a power plug insertion task, selected as a representative scenario that is repetitive yet requires precise trajectory and force control. Experimental results highlight significant improvements in task efficiency, while reducing reliance on continuous operator involvement.