Analysis of User Preferences for Robot Motions in Immersive Telepresence

TL;DR

This study investigates how different robot motion paths in immersive telepresence affect user preference, comfort, and naturalness, revealing key factors like speed and turn frequency that influence user experience.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into user preferences for robot motion paths in virtual reality, highlighting the importance of speed and turn characteristics for comfort and naturalness.

Findings

Preference linked to comfort, speed, and turn characteristics

Naturalness associated with visibility of salient objects and spatial layout

Users preferred paths with 1 m/s speed and fewer turns

Abstract

This paper considers how the motions of a telepresence robot moving autonomously affect a person immersed in the robot through a head-mounted display. In particular, we explore the preference, comfort, and naturalness of elements of piecewise linear paths compared to the same elements on a smooth path. In a user study, thirty-six subjects watched panoramic videos of three different paths through a simulated museum in virtual reality and responded to questionnaires regarding each path. Preference for a particular path was influenced the most by comfort, forward speed, and characteristics of the turns. Preference was also strongly associated with the users' perceived naturalness, which was primarily determined by the ability to see salient objects, the distance to the walls and objects, as well as the turns. Participants favored the paths that had a one meter per second forward speed and rated the path with the least amount of turns as the most comfortable