On the Use of Haptic Tablets for UGV Teleoperation in Unstructured Environments: System Design and Evaluation

Luz, Rute; Corujeira, Jessica; Grisoni, Laurent; Giraud, Frederic; Silva, Jose Luis; Ventura, Rodrigo · 2019 · DOAJ

DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2928981

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Summary

This paper addresses the challenge of maintaining Situation Awareness (SA) during the teleoperation of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) in unstructured environments, specifically focusing on instances where the vehicle loses traction. Traditional interfaces rely heavily on visual feedback, which often fails to convey the physical state of the robot’s wheels, leading to operator confusion and inefficiency when the UGV becomes stuck or slides. The authors propose a system design that integrates a haptic tablet, E-Vita, to provide tactile feedback regarding the UGV’s traction state while simultaneously serving as the control interface. The study utilizes the RAPOSA-NG, a tracked-wheel search and rescue UGV prototype. The system architecture includes a traction detection module that compares wheel odometry with laser-based odometry to classify the robot’s state as normal, stuck, or sliding. This state is conveyed to the operator via distinct haptic textures on the E-Vita tablet: no friction for normal operation, high friction for stuck states, and a piano-like protrusion pattern for sliding. To evaluate this approach, the researchers conducted a user study with 20 participants in a simulated search and rescue environment. Using a within-subject design, participants performed navigation tasks using both the haptic tablet (EV) and a standard gamepad (GP) without haptic feedback. Performance was measured implicitly through task completion time, the duration of each traction state, and the frequency of traction state occurrences. The results demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in traction awareness when using the haptic tablet. Specifically, participants spent significantly less time in the "stuck" state when using E-Vita (0.484 seconds) compared to the gamepad (0.724 seconds). This reduction indicates that haptic feedback allowed operators to recognize and respond to traction loss more effectively. However, this improvement did not translate to a statistically significant difference in overall task completion time or task success rates. The frequency of traction states showed no significant difference between devices, though the normal state occurred most frequently across all conditions. The significance of this work lies in validating the use of haptic tablets as a bilateral interface for UGV teleoperation, offering a novel solution to the limitations of visual-only feedback. By providing direct tactile cues about the robot’s physical interaction with the terrain, the system reduces the cognitive load and frustration associated with diagnosing traction loss. The findings suggest that while haptic feedback improves specific aspects of situation awareness—particularly reducing the duration of stuck states—it may require further optimization to impact broader mission metrics like total completion time. This research contributes to the field of human-robot interaction by demonstrating the practical utility of vibrotactile technology in enhancing operator performance in hazardous, unstructured environments.

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Topics

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• teleoperation remote driving
• haptic feedback