Hybrid Environment Reconstruction Improving User Experience and Workload in Augmented Virtuality Teleoperation

Abstract

Concurrent with autonomous robots, teleoperation gains importance in industrial applications. This includes remote intervention scenarios and human-robot-cooperation during complex or harmful tasks operated from a distance. For an efficient teleoperation, an interface achieving a good user experience and relieving workload of the operators is decisive. Whereas virtual reality allows a spatial integration, environment reconstruction is often based on point clouds in combination with pre-known object models. Challenges exist in spatial representation, through bandwidth limitations and sensor interferences. Furthermore, the potential of knowledge augmentation for workload improvement is often not fully utilized. To overcome these challenges, we present a hybrid environment reconstruction method, which is adaptive regarding the integration of different data sources as well as their derived semantic information levels. For evaluation, a user study is performed. Thereby known procedures to measure usability, immersion, user experience and operator workload serve for evaluation and comparison.