Designing speech-based interfaces for telepresence robots for people with disabilities

Abstract

People with cognitive and/or motor impairments may benefit from using telepresence robots to engage in social activities. To date, these robots, their user interfaces, and their navigation behaviors have not been designed for operation by people with disabilities. We conducted an experiment in which participants (n=12) used a telepresence robot in a scavenger hunt task to determine how they would use speech to command the robot. Based upon the results, we present design guidelines for speech-based interfaces for telepresence robots.

Telepresence Robots for People with Special Needs: A Systematic Review

“…A cloud robotics system for telepresence enabling mobility impaired people to enjoy the whole museum experience Motor disabilities [37] A Step towards a Robotic System With Smartphone Working As Its Brain : An Assistive Technology Motor disabilities [38] A study to design VI classrooms using virtual reality aided telepresence Homebound children with disabilities [39] A Telepresence Mobile Robot Controlled With a Noninvasive Brain-Computer Interface Motor disabilities [40] A telepresence robotic system operated with a P300-based brain-computer interface: Initial tests with ALS patients Motor disabilities [27] Accessible Control of Telepresence Robots based on Eye Tracking Motor disabilities [41] Accessible Human-Robot Interaction for Telepresence Robots: A Case Study Motor and cognitive disabilities [42] An Eye-gaze Tracking System for Teleoperation of a Mobile Robot Motor disabilities [43] Assistant Personal Robot (APR): Conception and Application of a Tele-Operated Assisted Living Robot Older adults [44] Brain-Computer Interface Meets ROS: A Robotic Approach to Mentally Drive Telepresence Robots Motor disabilities [45] Brain-controlled telepresence robot by motor-disabled people Motor disabilities [46] Comparison of SSVEP BCI and Eye Tracking for Controlling a Humanoid Robot in a Social Environment Motor disabilities [47] Design and Optimization of a BCI-Driven Telepresence Robot Through Programming by Demonstration Motor disabilities [48] Designing speech-based interfaces for telepresence robots for people with disabilities Cognitive and/or motor disabilities [49] Driving a Semiautonomous Mobile Robotic Car Controlled by an SSVEP-Based BCI Motor disabilities [50] EEG-Based Mobile Robot Control Through an Adaptive Brain-Robot Interface Motor disabilities [51] Effect of a Click-Like Feedback on Motor Imagery in EEG-BCI and Eye-Tracking Hybrid Control for Telepresence Motor disabilities [52] Evaluation of an Assistive Telepresence Robot for Elderly Healthcare Older adults [53] Eye-Gaze-Controlled Telepresence Robots for People with Motor Disabilities Motor disabilities [54] Gaze-controlled Laser Pointer Platform for People with Severe Motor Impairments: Preliminary Test in Telepresence Motor disabilities [55] Going to school on a robot: Robot and user interface design features that matter Homebound children [56] Hand-and gaze-control of telepresence robots Motor disabilities [57] Hands-free collaboration using telepresence robots for all ages Older...…”

“…Motor disability (26 papers, 77%) was the most common user condition among the disability-related papers, while 4 papers focused on visual disabilities and 3 focused on cognitive disabilities. Most of them focused on just one type of disability, while two of them [49,25] addressed a combination of motor and cognitive disabilities.…”

“…The robots used in the selected papers may be classified into three categories according to their features: i) Experimental (i.e., prototype) robots; ii) commercial robots; and iii) adapted commercial robots. Robots mentioned in the study included commercial telepresence robots (like VGO [49], Double [56], Padbot [57]) and other types of robots for adaptation (like LEGO Mindstorms NXT [60], NAO [48], Pepper [45], Robotino by FESTO [63]).…”

“…Camera features were not reported in a majority of the selected papers, or they just mentioned that a webcam or a notebook-integrated webcam was used (e.g., [49]). A few papers reported that they used a 360 degree camera [59,39,41,54], an HD-camera [55], a pan/tilt camera [37], or a stereo camera [64].…”

“…Consequently, the target users were required to be the pilot. Some robots did not provide assistance for navigation [64,57,54], while most of the commercial products (e.g., [49,31]) and the robots used in [27,40,67,44] offered features such as obstacle detection, obstacle avoidance or semi-autonomous driving (e.g., [37]).…”