What Comes After Telepresence? Embodiment, Social Presence and Transporting One’s Functional and Social Self

Advances in robotics and multisensory displays allow extending telepresence ambitions beyond only “the feeling of being present at a remote location”. In this paper, we discuss what may lie beyond telepresence and how we can transport both the functional and social self of a user. We introduce the embodiment illusion and its potential...

Pupil Diameter as Implicit Measure to Estimate Sense of Embodiment

We explore pupil diameter (PD) as estimator of Sense of Embodiment (SoE) using data of three user studies. We hypothesize that pupil diameter reflects SoE in a direct and indirect way. If individuals feel strongly embodied, presenting an emotional stimulus like a threat to the surrogate will produce a strong response, as if the stimulus would be...

The Cross-modal Congruency Effect as an Objective Measure of Embodiment

Remote control of robots generally requires a high level of expertise and may impose a considerable cognitive burden on operators. A sense of embodiment over a remote-controlled robot might enhance operators? task performance and reduce cognitive workload. We want to study the extent to which different factors affect embodiment. As a first step,...

Evaluation of Immersive Teleoperation Systems using Standardized Tasks and Measurements

Despite advances regarding autonomous functionality for robots, teleoperation remains a means for performing delicate tasks in safety critical contexts like explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and ambiguous environments. Immersive stereoscopic displays have been proposed and developed in this regard, but bring about their own specific problems, e...

Haptic Feedback in a Teleoperated Box & Blocks Task

Haptic feedback is a desired feature in teleoperation as it can improve dexterous manipulation. Direct force feedback to the operator’s hand and fingers requires complex hardware and therefore substituting force by for instance vibration is a relevant topic. In this experiment, we tested performance on a Box & Blocks task in a teleoperation set...

Human-Robot Interaction During Virtual Reality Mediated Teleoperation: How Environment Information Affects Spatial Task Performance and Operator Situation Awareness

Virtual Reality (VR) mediated teleoperation is a relatively new field in robotics which means little is known about the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of environmental information presentation on Human-Robot Team (HRT) task performance and operator Situation Awareness (oSA). Method. The...

Towards a test battery to benchmark dexterous performance in teleoperated systems

A high level of dexterity is becoming increasingly important for teleoperated inspection, maintenance and repair robots. A standard test to benchmark system dexterity can advance the design, quantify possible improvements, and increase the effectiveness of such systems. Because of the wide variety of tasks and application domains ranging from...

A New UGV Teleoperation Interface for Improved Awareness of Network Connectivity and Physical Surroundings

A reliable wireless connection between the operator and the teleoperated Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) is critical in many Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) missions. Unfortunately, as was seen in e.g. the Fukushima disaster, the networks available in areas where USAR missions take place are often severely limited in range and coverage. Therefore,...

Free look UGV teleoperation control tested in game environment: Enhanced performance and reduced workload

Concurrent telecontrol of the chassis and camera of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) is a demanding task for Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams. The standard way of controlling UGVs is called Tank Control (TC), but there is reason to believe that Free Look Control (FLC), a control mode used in games, could reduce this load substantially by...

Human automation integration

Many versions of future concept of operations (CONOPS) rely heavily on UMVs. The pressure to take the human out of immediate control of these vehicles is being driven by several factors. These factors include a reduction in cost for the production and maintenance of the vehicle, operational viability in extreme environments, and the public...

Supervising UAVs: Improving operator performance by optimizing the human factor

Tele-operated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have no operators on board and therefore enable extension of the present sensing and communication capabilities in civil and military missions, without unnecessarily endangering personnel or deploying expensive material. One should also realize that tele-operation from a control centre may result in...

TNO human factors - the Netherlands

NATO HFM 121/RTO 042 'Virtual environments for intuitive human-system interaction'maakt een compendium van nationale activiteiten op het gebied van 'augmented. mixed, and virtual environments', : onderhavige publicatie beschrijft het werk bij TNO Human Facors in deze.

The development of a man-machine interface for space manipulator displacement tasks

A space manipulator is a lightweight robotic arm mounted on a space station or a spacecraft. If the manipulator is manually controlled from a remote location (teleoperation), the human operator can only see its movements in the pictures from the cameras mounted on the manipulator and the pictures from the cameras installed in the neighbourhood...

RPV research simulator [RPV research simulator]

According to the new mission of the Royal Netherlands Army, supervision and peacekeeping operations in unknown areas and areas of difficult access become increasingly prominent. In this connection, it is supposed that because of the huge number of potential applications and the rapid technological developments in the area of semi-autonomous...