Design and evaluation of an end-user friendly tool for robot programming

End-user programming for robots is becoming an increasingly important topic since robots are being introduced into a wide variety of domains. We propose a design of a web based programming interface that makes it possible for end-users with different backgrounds to program robots using natural language. We used the cognitive dimensions framework to compare the usability of the newly created and the currently employed programming interfaces. The results showed that domain specialists are able to make robot programs more quickly and pleasantly with the proposed interface than with an existing one. Another important finding is that without physical simulation of the robot behaviours, the end-users do not feel confident enough to develop their scenarios in a realistic setting.