Visual Representation of Sound Sources and Interaction Forces in a Teleoperation Interface for a Mobile Robot

Commercial telepresence robots provide video, audio, and proximity data to remote operators through a teleoperation user interface running on standard computing devices. As new modalities such as force sensing and sound localization are being developed and tested on advanced robotic platforms, ways to integrate such information on a teleoperation interface are required. This paper demonstrates the use of visual representations of forces and sound localization in a 3D teleoperation interface. Forces are represented using colors, size, bar graphs and arrows, while speech or ring bubbles are used to represents sound positions and types. Validation of these modalities is done with 31 participants using IRL-1/TR, a humanoid platform equipped with differential elastic actuators to provide compliance and force control of its arms and capable of sound source localization. Results suggest that visual representations of interaction force and sound source can provide appropriately useful information to remote operators.