The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality for Training Human-Robot Teams

Human-Robot Teaming (HRT), or the collaboration of humans and robots to complete tasks, has become increasingly prevalent in the modern age. From medicine to military applications, robots have found a place in improving the capabilities of humans in challenging environments. As robots become incorporated in more aspects of human life, it is important that effective methods of training exist to prepare humans to interact with robot teammates. For this purpose, we created a tutorial for HRT using the Unity Game Engine. This tutorial is designed based on the analysis of previous literature and includes features found in other effective training systems and tutorials. Our tutorial is built on the framework of the Project Aquaticus HRT test-bed, a 3D, virtual reality (VR) simulation in which humans cooperate with autonomous robot teammates to compete in capture-the-flag in boats on the water. We introduce an experiment designed to compare the effectiveness of training via a 3D, VR tutorial to that of written manual instruction. This paper specifically introduces updates to our 3D simulation, tutorial, and proposed user studies to determine the system’s effectiveness at training humans for future human-robot teams.