Performance Evaluation of Viewpoint-Controlled Displays for Teleoperated Robots

Roger A. Browse and Scott Little

Abstract

A central issue in teleoperation is the provision of appropriate perceptual information for the remote human operator. One approach is to provide computational sensing of the workspace sufficient to support a full graphic simulation which can be seen by the operator from any desired viewpoint and scale.

We have developed an experimental teleoperation system which provides the capability of displaying graphic simulation images which accurately depict actual robot operation. Our experimentation compares the use of monocular operator-controlled-viewpoint displays to conditions in which the operation of the robot is viewed directly. The robot gripper was moved through a balanced set of trajectories relative to an object in the workspace, and subjects were required to make a forced-choice judgement as to whether or not the gripper would collide with the object.

Significantly more errors were encountered in the live-monocular and fixed-simulation conditions than were found in either the live-stereo or the controlled-simulation conditions, while there were no significant performance differences between these two more effective display conditions. An analysis indicates that the angle formed between viewing direction and the line of motion of the robot gripper is a strong determiner of the number of errors that are made.