Towards Robust Exocentric Mobile Robot Tele-Operation in Mixed Reality

Ke Li, Reinhard Bacher, Wim Leemans, Frank Steinicke

Keywords: Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, Human-Robot Interaction, Mobile Robot, Robotics Control

TL;DR: This work describes a novel exocentric teleoperation system that could be used for mobile robot navigation and manipulation in a human-robot co-located mixed reality environment or a digital twin of the remote environment.

Abstract:

A mobile robot is an important type of robot commonly used to explore remote environments that are hazardous and inaccessible for humans. However, operating a mobile robot to explore a remote environment using the conventional 2D user interfaces could be challenging, especially when exploring an environment where unexpected robot behavior has to be avoided. In recent years, using mixed reality technology for human-robot interaction has demonstrated benefits in increasing robot operation safety, improving human trust in robots, and reducing operator's mental and physical workload.

In this work, we describe a novel tele-operation system that could be used for mobile robot navigation and manipulation in a human-robot co-located mixed reality environment or a digital twin of the remote environment, where users could freely switch perspectives in the mixed reality environment. We first present our interaction design and system implementation and then discuss the future work for user studies and evaluations.