Evaluating operator performance in teleoperated manipulator system factored by camera configurations

Abstract

Tele-operated manipulator has been used in a variety of occupational situations, ranging from space exploration, undersea operations, special search and rescue activities to robotic surgery. It is a challenging task, due to the difficulty with maintaining awareness of the robotic arm’s configuration and arm location in the task environment. Operators sometimes fail to understand the relative position posture in task scenario as well as arm configuration such as joint limits or singularities due to multi-channel visual display and poor ability in integrating all channels of visual information. The present study served to understand how operators build up situation awareness of location and arm configuration in the task scenario with multi-channels of visual information. The paper mainly discusses the nature of spatial ability with handle controller in time delay condition, and concerns with the development of routines for making task allocation and sequences adaptable. The findings from experiments indicated the best camera configuration and how automated routine allocation does not help too much improve the performance.