StyROC: Stylus Robot Overlay Control & StyRAC: Stylus Robot Arm Control

This paper describes 2 methods of controlling unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) using stylus. The first method called StyROC (Stylus Robot Overlay Control) involves tele-operation of the robot with the controls superimposed on a UGV local map which is a vehicle-centric map that shows the obstacles around the robot. The second method is called StyRAC (Stylus Robot Arm Control) which allows the operator to control the arm of the robot using the stylus as well. A purely stylus-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) was designed to allow the control of robots via semi-autonomous or tele-operation mode. It also allows the operator to control the robotic arm on the unmanned robot. A two phase User Centred Design (USD) process was adopted in developing the interface. In the first phase, Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) was conducted to elicit information on the challenges faced by the operators of the robots. In the second phase, the design was validated and refined through experiments. A total of 2 usability studies, 1 paper prototype evaluation and 1 heuristic evaluation were conducted to evaluate the interface. Results indicated that participants found the interface intuitive and easy to learn. There was significantly higher workload when operators where controlling 2 robots but there were no significant differences in terms of time taken to complete tasks. Issues such as the level of technology and trust in automation were issues that were brought up in the study.