The joint Japan/US/UK Hinode mission includes the first large-aperture visiblelight solar telescope flown in space. One component of the Focal Plane Package of that telescope is a precision spectro-polarimeter designed to measure full Stokes spectra with the intent of using those spectra to infer the magnetic-field vector at high precision in the solar photosphere. This article describes the characteristics of the flight hardware of the Hinode Spectro-Polarimeter, and summarizes its in-flight performance.

Objective: To develop a model for human performance in combined translational and rotational movements based on Fitts' law. Background: Fitts' law has been successfully applied to translational movements in the past, providing generalization beyond a specific task as well as performance predictions. For movements involving both translations and rotations, no equivalent theory exists, making comparisons of input devices for these movements more ambiguous. Method: The study consisted of three experiments. In the first two, participants performed either pure translational or pure rotational movements of 1 degree of freedom. The third experiment involved the same movements combined. Results: On average, the performance times for combined movements were equal to the sum of the times for equivalent separate rotational and translational movements. A simple Fitts' law equivalent for combined movements with a similar slope as the separate com-ponents was proposed. In addition, a significant degree of coordination of the combined movements was found. This had a strong bias toward a parallel execution in 12 out of 13 participants. Conclusion: Combined movements with rotations and translations of 1 degree of freedom can be approximated using a simple Fitts' law equivalent. The rotational and translational components appear to be coordinated by the central nervous system to generate a parallel execution. Application: The results may help drive human interface designs and provide insights into the coordination of combined movements. Future extensions may be possible for the movements of higher degrees of freedom used in robot teleoperation and virtual reality applications.

Manipulation from a free-flying vehicle has applications in space and undersea teleoperation. Both environments allow a vehicle to move freely in all six degrees of freedom. For many operations, such as inspection and servicing, the ability to manipulate from an undocked teleoperator will be essential. The major contribution of this research is the development of a control algorithm, coordinated control, which allows the simultaneous reduced-order control of a vehicle and attached manipulator/The entire telerobot system is controlled by commanding the end effector inertially with respect to the task. This is accomplished through a unified treatment of the vehicle and manipulator as a single dynamic system, based on considering the free-flying teleoperator as a redundant manipulator. The vehicle controller minimizes fuel expenditure while maintaining a desirable manipulator configuration. The coordinated trajectory algorithm is a blend of two modes: gradient pseudo-inverse trajectory control, which uses both vehicle thrust and manipulator motion, and reaction-compensation trajectory control, which allows the base to react freely to manipulator interaction torques. Blending between these modes occurs as a function of the teleoperator's configuration potential. The potential incorporates kinematic functions such as singularity avoidance, joint limits, and collision avoidance.

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