Sensory requirements and performance assessment of tele-presence controlled robots

Robots have most successfully been applied in repetitive operations, but often when the task involves complex variable operations in unstructured environments teleoperation is preferred. As the complexity of these human supervisory tasks has increased the trend has been towards greater sensory feedback and more intuitive input control. This paper reports on the relative effectiveness of and need for sensory feedback systems for operator control in telepresence applications. In particular, studies were made of the performance of manipulation and navigation planning operations on a twin armed mobile robot using a variety of visual and audio cues and input systems. The performance was measured by experimentation with a range of subjects at a number of difficulty levels to test the effectiveness of the telepresence controller in a series of technical scenarios