Human-Centered Design and Evaluation of Haptic Cueing for Teleoperation of Multiple Mobile Robots

TitleHuman-Centered Design and Evaluation of Haptic Cueing for Teleoperation of Multiple Mobile Robots
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2013
AuthorsSon, HI, Franchi, A, Chuang, LL, Kim, J, Bülthoff, HH, Robuffo Giordano, P
JournalIEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, & Cybernetics. Part B: Cybernetics
Volume43
Issue2
Pagination597-609
Date Published04/2013
KeywordsEvaluation, Force feedback, Haptics, Multi-robot systems, Psychophysical evaluation of haptic feedback, Psychophysics, Teleoperation
Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the effect of haptic cueing on human operator's performance in the field of bilateral teleoperation of multiple mobile robots, in particular multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Two aspects of human performance are deemed important in this area, namely the maneuverability of mobile robots and perceptual sensitivity of the remote environment. We introduce metrics that allow us to address these aspects in two psychophysical studies, which are reported here. Three fundamental haptic cue types were evaluated. The Force cue conveys information on the proximity of the commanded trajectory to obstacles in the remote environment. The Velocity cue represents the mismatch between the commanded and actual velocity of the UAVs and can implicitly provide a rich amount of information regarding the actual behavior of the UAVs. Finally, the Velocity+Force cue is a linear combination of the two.
Our experimental results show that while maneuverability is best supported by the Force cue feedback, perceptual sensitivity is best served by the Velocity cue feedback. In addition, we show that large gains in the haptic feedbacks do not always guarantee an enhancement in teleoperator's performance.

Citation Key2011q-SonFraChuKimBueRob
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