Towards Accessible Robot Control: Comparing Kinesthetic Teaching, SpaceMouse Teleoperation, and a Mixed Reality Interface

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Smith, Aliyah, Kennedy III, Monroe
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Smith, Aliyah
Kennedy III, Monroe
author_facet Smith, Aliyah
Kennedy III, Monroe
contents Teleoperation interfaces are essential tools for enabling human control of robotic systems. Although a wide range of interfaces has been developed, a persistent gap remains between the level of performance humans can achieve through these interfaces and the capabilities afforded by direct human-guided robot control. This gap is further exacerbated when users are inexperienced or unfamiliar with the robotic platform or control interface. In this work, we aim to better characterize this performance gap for non-expert users by comparing two teleoperation approaches, SpaceMouse teleoperation and a Mixed Reality (MR) interface, against kinesthetic teaching as a non-teleoperation baseline. All three approaches were evaluated in a comprehensive user study involving two robotic platforms and six complex manipulation tasks. Quantitative results show that the SpaceMouse and MR interfaces performed comparably, with significant differences in task completion observed for only two tasks, and success rates declining as task complexity increased. Qualitative analysis reflected these trends, highlighting differences in Physical Demand and identifying interface attributes that influence users' ability to perform, learn, and understand. This study quantifies the limitations of current teleoperation methods and incorporates subjective feedback from 25 participants. The results highlight the critical need to design and rigorously evaluate teleoperation systems for non-expert users, particularly in contexts where autonomous robots are deployed in personal or everyday environments, to ensure usability, efficiency, and accessibility.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_18394
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Accessible Robot Control: Comparing Kinesthetic Teaching, SpaceMouse Teleoperation, and a Mixed Reality Interface
Smith, Aliyah
Kennedy III, Monroe
Robotics
Teleoperation interfaces are essential tools for enabling human control of robotic systems. Although a wide range of interfaces has been developed, a persistent gap remains between the level of performance humans can achieve through these interfaces and the capabilities afforded by direct human-guided robot control. This gap is further exacerbated when users are inexperienced or unfamiliar with the robotic platform or control interface. In this work, we aim to better characterize this performance gap for non-expert users by comparing two teleoperation approaches, SpaceMouse teleoperation and a Mixed Reality (MR) interface, against kinesthetic teaching as a non-teleoperation baseline. All three approaches were evaluated in a comprehensive user study involving two robotic platforms and six complex manipulation tasks. Quantitative results show that the SpaceMouse and MR interfaces performed comparably, with significant differences in task completion observed for only two tasks, and success rates declining as task complexity increased. Qualitative analysis reflected these trends, highlighting differences in Physical Demand and identifying interface attributes that influence users' ability to perform, learn, and understand. This study quantifies the limitations of current teleoperation methods and incorporates subjective feedback from 25 participants. The results highlight the critical need to design and rigorously evaluate teleoperation systems for non-expert users, particularly in contexts where autonomous robots are deployed in personal or everyday environments, to ensure usability, efficiency, and accessibility.
title Towards Accessible Robot Control: Comparing Kinesthetic Teaching, SpaceMouse Teleoperation, and a Mixed Reality Interface
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.18394