HMD as a new tool for telepresence in underwater operations and closed-loop control of ROVs

With the recent development of computer graphics and video-gaming, 360° cameras and related technologies, Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) are becoming a popular tool to improve the users experience and efficiency. This trend is also connected to the computer technology improvements of the latest years and its price decrease: HMDs are now more performing and, at the same time, commercially accessible to the masses. In this paper a HMD is used to improve the telepresence experience, to increase the situational awareness during underwater operations, and to actively control a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). Although HMDs are already used to actively control the point of view of the operator by moving the camera system of vehicles, in this paper they are used to control the vehicle itself, providing a hand-free Human-Machine Interface (HMI). In this way the operator has the possibility of controlling other devices (e.g. a manipulator attached to the ROV) while moving the ROV, highly increasing the efficiency of the underwater operations. Three control methods inspired by previous work developed for the classical joystick interface are presented, full-scale experiments and conclusions on the usability of the proposed solution for real off-shore operations are discussed.