Breaking Down the Barriers: Investigating Non-Expert User Experiences in Robotic Teleoperation in UK and Japan

TL;DR

This study compares user experiences and trust levels in robotic teleoperation across UK and Japan, evaluating different robotic arms and control methods to identify factors influencing workload, strain, and trust.

Contribution

It introduces TELESIM, a modular teleoperation framework, and provides cross-cultural insights into user trust and strain with various robotic systems.

Findings

UR5e led to more towers built

UR5e caused least cognitive stress

Senseglove with UR3 increased physical strain and frustration

Abstract

Robots are being created each year with the goal of integrating them into our daily lives. As such, there is an interest in research in evaluating the trust of humans toward robots. In addition, teleoperating robotic arms can be challenging for non-experts. To reduce the strain put on the user, we created TELESIM, a modular and plug-and-play framework that enables direct teleoperation of any robotic arm using a digital twin as the interface between users and the robotic system. We evaluated our framework using a user survey with three robots and control methods and recorded the user's workload and performance at completing a tower stacking task. However, an analysis of the strain on the user and their ability to trust robots was omitted. This paper addresses these omissions by presenting the additional results of our user survey of 37 participants carried out in United Kingdom. In addition, we present the results of an additional user survey, under similar conditions performed in Japan, with the goal of addressing the limitations of our previous approach, by interfacing a VR controller with a UR5e. Our experimental results show that the UR5e has more towers built. Additionally, the UR5e gives the least amount of cognitive stress, while the combination of Senseglove and UR3 provides the user with the highest physical strain and causes the user to feel more frustrated. Finally, the Japanese participants seem more trusting of robots than the British participants.