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

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 perfor- mance are deemed important in this area, namely the maneuver- ability 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.