Intuitive Error Resolution Strategies during Robot Demonstration

While robot learning from demonstration comes with great benefits [5], the intuitive interaction between naïve users and robots also poses challenges. For instance, users need to be prevented from causing damage and to be enabled to recover from errors. We studied the error resolution strategies of 28 lay users performing simple assembly tasks via teleoperation of a robotic arm in order to gain insight into the strategies users take. The two most common problems are too much pressure and singularity. Even though users were provided with instructions on how to undo singularity in an instruction video, they did not always recover successfully. In contrast, too much pressure, if noticed, was resolved mostly correctly by lifting the peg or by letting it drop into the hole rather than inserting it. Finally, users were quite clueless about how to resolve self-collision and over-rotation.