Designing a User Study for Comparing 2D and VR Human-in-the-Loop Robot Planning Interfaces

Gregory LeMasurier, Jordan Allspaw, Murphy Wonsick, James Tukpah, Taskin Padir, Holly Yanco, Elizabeth Phillips

Keywords: Human-robot interaction (HRI), Robot Teleoperation, Virtual Reality (VR), Mobile Robots

TL;DR: In this work, we discuss plans and design for a user study to compare two human-in-the-loop planning interfaces, a 2D keyboard and mouse interface and a 3D virtual reality interface, for teleoperating a robot across navigation and manipulation tasks.

Abstract: Human-in-the-loop robot teleoperation interfaces enable operators to control robots to complete complex tasks, as seen by the success of teams in the DARPA Robotics Challenge. In our prior work we discussed our virtual reality planning interface for performing dexterous robot teleoperation. In this work, we discuss plans and design for a user study to compare two human-in-the-loop planning interfaces, a 2D keyboard and mouse interface modeled after those used in the DARPA Robotics Challenge and a 3D virtual reality interface, for teleoperating a robot across navigation and manipulation tasks. In our study, we will compare operator performance, situation awareness, cognitive workload while using the interface, as well as the perceived usability of each. This work will contribute to building effective and intuitive teleoperation interfaces for controlling robots to complete complex tasks and in challenging environments.