I'm looking for some information on telerobotics. I'm new to the field and I want to educate myself on the state of the art. I'd also like to find sources of commercial systems and/or component manufacturers.
The application I'm interested in is hazardous environment equipment handling, construction and repair of heavy equipment. Tele-medical precision is definitely not required, but I may have to manipulate 500 lb objects. This isn't a nuclear or chemical application and the separation between the tools and operator will be no more than a few hundred feet (dedicated comm. can be used so as not to worry about Internet latency and security).