Exploring head tracked head mounted displays for first person robot teleoperation

Abstract

We explore the capabilities of head tracking combined with head mounted displays (HMD) as an input modality for robot navigation. We use a Parrot AR Drone to test five techniques which include metaphors for plane-like banking control, carlike turning control and virtual reality-inspired translation and rotation schemes which we compare with a more traditional game controller interface. We conducted a user study to observe the effectiveness of each of the interfaces we developed in navigating through a number of archways in an indoor course. We examine a number of qualitative and quantitative metrics to determine performance and preference among each metaphor. Our results show an appreciation for head rotation based controls over other head gesture techniques, with the classic controller being preferred overall. We discuss possible shortcomings with head tracked HMDs as a primary input method as well as propose improved metaphors that alleviate some of these drawbacks.

The Effects of Visual and Control Latency on Piloting a Quadcopter Using a Head-Mounted Display

“…The former [10][11][12][13][14] usually elicits symptoms of simulator sickness. However, operating vehicles using only HMDs [1][2][3][4] seem to give people a more direct, immersive and intuitive way of control than joint use of computer monitors and joysticks. In addition, researchers have also investigated the effects of latency on driving cars [15] and piloting helicopters [16].…”

“…Pittman and LaViola [3] evaluated six different techniques for operating a quadcopter, including five techniques based on head motion and body motion using an HMD and a technique using the Wiimote. To evaluate all six techniques, participants were asked to fly a quadcopter through five archways placed in an open environment.…”

“…2) that contained a stone-textured ground and a skydome. Similar to the experiment environment in [3], which used archways, we placed 100 square waypoints (Fig. 3) in the scene at a height of 5 m and the altitude of the quadcopter was fixed at 6 m. The inner dimension of each waypoint was 2 m (W) × 2 m (H) × 0.1 m (D).…”

Evaluating Stereoscopic Video with Head Tracking for Immersive Teleoperation of Mobile Telepresence Robots

“…Their usability study yielded positive results for a searchand-rescue task. Pittman et al [3] studied immersive control of aerial robotic vehicles using an HMD As alternative to improving the user's immersion, semi-autonomous robot behavior for navigation assistance has been studied by Takayama et al [4]. …”

First-person tele-operation of a humanoid robot

“…This is also true when we tele-operate the hands of a robot, for example in [8] where sensor gloves are used to control the hand of the iCub robot. This limitation can be overcome by providing the operator with a firstperson-view [9]. The use of wearable virtual-reality devices allows a seamless integration with the motion capture system and additionally provides a natural way of controlling the view of the operator.…”