Free look UGV teleoperation control tested in game environment: Enhanced performance and reduced workload

Concurrent telecontrol of the chassis and camera of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) is a demanding task for Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams. The standard way of controlling UGVs is called Tank Control (TC), but there is reason to believe that Free Look Control (FLC), a control mode used in games, could reduce this load substantially by decoupling, and providing separate controls for, camera translation and rotation. The general hypothesis is that FLC (1) reduces robot operators' workload and (2) enhances their performance for dynamic and time-critical USAR scenarios. A game-based environment was set-up to systematically compare FLC with TC in two typical search and rescue tasks: navigation and exploration. The results show that FLC improves mission performance in both exploration (search) and path following (navigation) scenarios. In the former, more objects were found, and in the latter shorter navigation times were achieved. FLC also caused lower workload and stress levels in both scenarios, without inducing a significant difference in the number of collisions. Finally, FLC was preferred by 75% of the subjects for exploration, and 56% for path following.