TY - JOUR
T1 - Levels of Automation for a Mobile Robot Teleoperated by a Caregiver
AU - Olatunji, Samuel A.
AU - Potenza, Andre
AU - Kiselev, Andrey
AU - Oron-Gilad, Tal
AU - Loutfi, Amy
AU - Edan, Yael
N1 - Funding Information:
Samuel A. Olatunji and Andre Potenza contributed equally to this research. This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 721619 for the SOCRATES project. Partial support was provided by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev through the Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Agricultural, Biological and Cognitive Robotics Initiative, the Marcus Endowment Fund, the Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut Chair in Manufacturing Engineering and the George Shrut Chair in Human Performance Management. Authors’ addresses: S. A. Olatunji, T. Oron-Gilad, and Y. Edan, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva 84105, Israel; emails: [email protected], {orontal, yael}@bgu.ac.il; A. Potenza, A. Kiselev, and A. Loutfi, Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS), Örebro University, Örebro 70182, Sweden; emails: {andre.potenza, andrey.kiselev, amy.loutfi}@oru.se.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
PY - 2022/2/8
Y1 - 2022/2/8
N2 - Caregivers in eldercare can benefit from telepresence robots that allow them to perform a variety of tasks remotely. In order for such robots to be operated effectively and efficiently by non-technical users, it is important to examine if and how the robotic system's level of automation (LOA) impacts their performance. The objective of this work was to develop suitable LOA modes for a mobile robotic telepresence (MRP) system for eldercare and assess their influence on users' performance, workload, awareness of the environment, and usability at two different levels of task complexity. For this purpose, two LOA modes were implemented on the MRP platform: assisted teleoperation (low LOA mode) and autonomous navigation (high LOA mode). The system was evaluated in a user study with 20 participants, who, in the role of the caregiver, navigated the robot through a home-like environment to perform control and perception tasks. Results revealed that performance improved in the high LOA when task complexity was low. However, when task complexity increased, lower LOA improved performance. This opposite trend was also observed in the results for workload and situation awareness. We discuss the results in terms of the LOAs' impact on users' attitude towards automation and implications on usability.
AB - Caregivers in eldercare can benefit from telepresence robots that allow them to perform a variety of tasks remotely. In order for such robots to be operated effectively and efficiently by non-technical users, it is important to examine if and how the robotic system's level of automation (LOA) impacts their performance. The objective of this work was to develop suitable LOA modes for a mobile robotic telepresence (MRP) system for eldercare and assess their influence on users' performance, workload, awareness of the environment, and usability at two different levels of task complexity. For this purpose, two LOA modes were implemented on the MRP platform: assisted teleoperation (low LOA mode) and autonomous navigation (high LOA mode). The system was evaluated in a user study with 20 participants, who, in the role of the caregiver, navigated the robot through a home-like environment to perform control and perception tasks. Results revealed that performance improved in the high LOA when task complexity was low. However, when task complexity increased, lower LOA improved performance. This opposite trend was also observed in the results for workload and situation awareness. We discuss the results in terms of the LOAs' impact on users' attitude towards automation and implications on usability.
KW - eldercare
KW - levels of automation
KW - Mobile robotic telepresence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127498697&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3507471
DO - 10.1145/3507471
M3 - Article
SN - 2573-9522
VL - 11
SP - 1
EP - 21
JO - ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction
JF - ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction
IS - 2
M1 - 20
ER -