Haptic control of a mobile robot: a user study

We address the problem of teleoperating a mobile robot using shared autonomy: an on-board controller performs obstacle avoidance while the operator uses the manipulandum of a haptic probe to designate the desired speed and rate of turn. Sensors on the robot are used to measure obstacle range information. We describe a strategy to convert such range information into forces, which are reflected to the operator´s hand, via the haptic probe. This haptic information provides feedback to the operator in addition to imagery from a front-facing camera mounted on the mobile robot. Extensive experiments with a user population show that the added haptic feedback significantly improves operator performance in several ways (reduced collisions, increased minimum distance between the robot and obstacles) without a significant increase in navigation time.