Operational Evaluation of a Construction Tele-Operation Robot with Force Feedback

The purpose of this study is to evaluate an operation system with virtual reality that is built in a virtual environment system in computer using computer graphics, and a control method of feedback in a master-slave system previously proposed by our Lab, by not only behavioral measures but also subjective measures and physiological measures. This study deals with a master-slave system for a tele-operated construction robot. The master in this system corresponds to two joysticks, which are used to operate the object from a remote location, and the slave corresponds to the construction robot with four degrees of freedom consisting of a fork glove, swing, boom and arm. In this study, the authors evaluated operability when the control method was adapted to an actual task that included transportation and piling up blocks using concrete block, based on behavioral measures (work effi ciency and indexes expressing the danger level of an operation), subjective measure (measurement of mental strain using NASA-TLX), and physiological measure (measurement of physiology strain using heart rate variability). As a result, we verifi ed that using the control method in this system could contribute to improving effi ciency and safety in tele-operation work, and alleviate the operator’s mental strain.