Human-robot interaction: Usability evaluation of different interaction modes.

What is it about?

In this paper we are interested about the usability of different interaction modes for agricultural robot teleoperation. Teleoperation implies that a remote user supervises and/or directs a remote robot. In this case, a farmer was remotely situated and was directing the robot in a vineyard field to spray. Thirty farmers were asked to use 8 different user interfaces with different interaction modes and we evaluated the usability of these interfaces. In this article we present our findings,

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Why is it important?

We believe that this research is important because it is dealing with an important aspect of human-robot interaction: that of the usability of user interfaces for robot teleportation. Specifically, we examined the overall influence of two types of output devices (PC screen, head mounted display), two types of peripheral vision support mechanisms (single view, multiple views), and two types of control input devices (PC keyboard, PS3 gamepad) on observed and perceived usability of a teleoperated agricultural sprayer. Results show that the most important factor for human-robot interface usability is the number and placement of views. The type of robot control input device was also a significant factor in certain dependents, whereas the effect of the screen output type was only significant on the participants’ perceived workload index. Specific recommendations for mobile field robot teleoperation to improve HRI awareness for the agricultural spraying task are presented.