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Objective To investigate the impact of interface display modalities and human-in-the-loop presence on the awareness, workload, performance, and user strategies of humans interacting with teleoperated robotic systems while conducting inspection tasks onboard spacecraft. Background Due to recent advancements in robotic technology, free-flying teleoperated robot inspectors are a viable alternative to extravehicular activity inspection operations. Teleoperation depends on the user’s situation awareness; consequently, a key to successful operations is practical bi-directional communication between human and robot agents. Method Participants ( n = 19) performed telerobotic inspection of a virtual spacecraft during two degrees of temporal communication, a Synchronous Inspection task and an Asynchronous Inspection task. Participants executed the two tasks while using three distinct visual displays (2D, 3D, AR) and accompanying control systems. Results Anomaly detection performance was better during Synchronous Inspection than the Asynchronous Inspection of previously captured imagery. Users’ detection accuracy reduced when given interactive exocentric 3D viewpoints to accompany the egocentric robot view. The results provide evidence that 3D projections, either demonstrated on a 2D interface or augmented reality hologram, do not affect the mean clearance violation time (local guidance performance), even though the subjects perceived a benefit. Conclusion In the current implementation, the addition of augmented reality to a classical egocentric robot view for exterior inspection of spacecraft is unnecessary, as its margin of performance enhancement is limited in comparison. Application Results are presented to inform future human–robot interfaces to support crew autonomy for deep space missions.

To reduce risk in future human spaceflights, free-flying teleoperated inspector robots could be a viable alternative to extravehicular activity inspection operations. Teleoperation depends on accurate operator situation awareness; consequently, a key to successful operations is providing appropriate feedback through an intuitive interface. During each week of a 45-day mission in NASA Human Exploration Research Analog Campaign 6, four crew members perform two simulated telerobotic inspection tasks (Synchronous Inspection task, Asynchronous Inspection task) while using three distinct visual displays (2D, 3D, AR). Preliminary results from Campaign 6 Mission 1 suggest that task performance and efficiency generally improved with each repetition of the task. Performance with the AR display did not show a performance benefit compared to using the 2D or 3D displays. These results are also in general agreement with a prior laboratory study using the same experiment protocol.

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