Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluation of Vision-Based Teleoperation of a Mobile Robot

This paper analyzes how performance of a basic teleoperation task are influenced by the viewpoint of the video feedback, using a remote mobile robot. Specifically, the viewpoint is varied in terms of height and tilt and the influence on a basic task, such as following some pre-defined paths, is analyzed. The operators are able to control one motor degree of freedom and up to two perceptive degrees of freedom. It is shown that performance vary depending both on the viewpoint and on the amount of perceptive freedom; in particular, the chosen metrics give better results when more perspective and, surprisingly, a more constrained perception is deployed. Furthermore, the contrast between the actual performance and the performance perceived by the operators is shown, which allows to discuss about the need of quantitative approaches in measuring the efficiency of a teleoperation task.

[1]  Mel W. Siegel,et al.  Just enough reality: comfortable 3-D viewing via microstereopsis , 2000, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol..

[2]  Josep Amat,et al.  Workspace deformation based teleoperation for the increase of movement precision , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422).

[3]  Thomas B. Sheridan,et al.  Defining Our Terms , 1992, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[4]  Jennifer E. Thropp,et al.  The Effects of Slow Frame Rates on Human Performance , 2006 .

[5]  Michael A. Goodrich,et al.  Ecological Interfaces for Improving Mobile Robot Teleoperation , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[6]  Earl Hunt,et al.  The Transfer of Spatial Knowledge in Virtual Environment Training , 1998, Presence.

[7]  Frank Biocca,et al.  Virtual Eyes Can Rearrange Your Body: Adaptation to Visual Displacement in See-Through, Head-Mounted Displays , 1998, Presence.

[8]  Wilfried Brauer,et al.  Spatial Cognition III , 2003, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[9]  Mark Fiala Pano-presence for teleoperation , 2005, 2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[10]  Makoto Sato,et al.  Influence of resolution degradation on distance estimation in virtual space displaying static and dynamic image , 2005, 2005 International Conference on Cyberworlds (CW'05).

[11]  James G. Phillips,et al.  The effects of head-mounted display attributes on human visual perception of region warping distortions , 2005 .

[12]  Michael Lewis,et al.  Experiments with attitude: attitude displays for teleoperation , 2003, SMC'03 Conference Proceedings. 2003 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. Conference Theme - System Security and Assurance (Cat. No.03CH37483).

[13]  Jonathan D. Pfautz Distortion of depth perception in a virtual environment application , 1996 .