Enhancing robot teleoperator situation awareness and performance using vibro-tactile and graphical feedback

Most of the feedback received by operators of current robot-teleoperation systems is graphical. When a large variety of robot data needs to be displayed however, this may lead to operator overload. The research presented in this paper focuses on off-loading part of the feedback to other human senses, specifically to the sense of touch, to reduce the load due to the interface, and as a consequence, to increase the level of operator situation awareness. Graphical and vibro-tactile versions of feedback delivery for collision interfaces were evaluated in a search task using a virtual teleoperated robot. Parameters measured included task time, number of collisions between the robot and the environment, number of objects found and the quality of post-experiment reports through the use of sketch maps. Our results indicate that the combined use of both graphical and vibro-tactile feedback interfaces led to an increase in the quality of sketch maps, a possible indication of increased levels of operator situation awareness, but also a slight decrease in the number of robot collisions.