Establishing human situation awareness using a multi-modal operator control unit in an urban search & rescue human-robot team

Early on in a disaster it is crucial for humans to make an assessment of the situation, to help determine further action. Robots can potentially assist humans here, particularly when the hotzone is too dangerous for humans. Crucial in this human-robot team effort is that the system of robot and means of interacting with it afford the human to build up a sufficient awareness of the situation, to make an assessment. The paper investigates this issue from the viewpoint of the operator control unit (OCU). The paper presents the principles, design, implementation, and high-fidelity field trial results of an OCU for a human-robot team in an Urban Search & Rescue mission.