What happened while I was away? Leveraging visual transition techniques to convey robot states in multi-robot teleoperation

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Abstract

In real-time multi-robot teleoperation, the operator faces a challenge of maintaining sufficient awareness of all robots in a team. We propose a novel approach to supporting operators, in instances where operators switch between controlling or observing multiple robots in a team. Just as how cinema or video games use visual and narrative techniques to support viewers when transitioning between scenes, we argue that multi-robot teleoperation interfaces should likewise leverage this transition time to provide pertinent information. That is, when switching to a new robot, the interface should take the opportunity to bring the operator up to speed, highlighting what happened while they were away, what current robot states are, and what specifics of the new robot being controlled are; thus, supporting situational awareness. In this paper, we outline this agenda and present our initial exploration and analysis of this informative visual transition.

Publisher Link

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-90525-5_66

Citation

Stela H. Seo, James E. Young. “What happened while I was away? Leveraging visual transition techniques to convey robot states in multi-robot teleoperation,” International Conference on Social Robotics, November 2021. Springer. Singapore.