Improved Interfaces for Human-Robot Interaction in Urban Search and Rescue

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Improved Interfaces for Human-Robot Interaction
in Urban Search and Rescue

• Michael Baker
• Robert Casey
• Brenden Keyes
• Holly A. Yanco
• University of Massachusetts Lowell

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Why Human-Robot Interaction in Urban Search and
Rescue is Hard

• Important to avoid secondary collapse by
  navigating safely
• Tunnel vision view of the environment
• Easy to miss vital information and details
• No sense of scale, travel direction or color

Video courtesy of CRASAR
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Human-Robot Interaction Issues in Urban Search
and Rescue

• Usability studies show
• Users spend a lot of time trying to gain
  situation awareness
• 30 of run time spent looking around instead of
  navigating
• Most users focus only on the video display
• We are looking to create an interface, that will
  be simple yet robust.

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Problems with Existing Interfaces

• Designed for more than one task
• GUI shows extraneous information
• Sensor information is too spread out
• Large learning curve
• Not configurable

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Problems with Existing Interfaces

• Wasted real estate
• Sonar map is difficult to read
• Map is not on the same eye level.

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Our Approach

• Capitalize on the users natural area of focus
• Fuse sensor information to decrease cognitive
  load
• Present sensor information so its readily and
  easily understood
• Increase situation awareness while decreasing the
  users mental effort
• Enhancements to increase user efficiency
• Suggestions
• Additional sensors

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UMass Lowells USAR Interface
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Pan and Tilt Indicators
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Pan and Tilt Indicators
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Single Camera Problems

• User has to remember what is behind the robot
• Leads to Problems
• 41 rear hits
• Poor situation awareness behind the robot

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Two Camera Solution

• Rear view mirror-inspired video display
• Automatic remapping of drive commands to simplify
  navigation
• Automatic remapping of range information to match
  robot travel direction

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Ranging Information

• Ranging information is displayed around the video
• Takes advantage of the users natural area of
  focus
• Use color, number of bars and location to lessen
  the users cognitive effort
• Option to display raw distance values

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Ranging Information

• Ranging information is displayed around the video
• Takes advantage of the users natural area of
  focus
• Use color, number of bars and location to lessen
  the users cognitive effort
• Option to display raw distance values

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Map of the Environment
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Preliminary Tests

• Users liked ability to switch the camera view
• Users prefer the joystick over the keyboard
  control
• Suggestions were helpful
• Usability tests in progress

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Ongoing Work

• Customizations
• People interact with the same interface
  differently
• Reflect users preference, not developers
• Use layered sensor modalities
• Variable frame rates for front and rear camera

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UMass Lowell USAR Interface