My Caregiver the Cobot: Comparing Visualization Techniques to Effectively Communicate Cobot Perception to People with Physical Impairments
Nowadays, robots are found in a growing number of areas where they collaborate closely with humans. Enabled by lightweight materials and safety sensors, these cobots are gaining increasing popularity in domestic care, where they support people with physical impairments in their everyday lives. Howev...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/3/755 |
| _version_ | 1797484847688581120 |
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| author | Max Pascher Kirill Kronhardt Til Franzen Uwe Gruenefeld Stefan Schneegass Jens Gerken |
| author_facet | Max Pascher Kirill Kronhardt Til Franzen Uwe Gruenefeld Stefan Schneegass Jens Gerken |
| author_sort | Max Pascher |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Nowadays, robots are found in a growing number of areas where they collaborate closely with humans. Enabled by lightweight materials and safety sensors, these cobots are gaining increasing popularity in domestic care, where they support people with physical impairments in their everyday lives. However, when cobots perform actions autonomously, it remains challenging for human collaborators to understand and predict their behavior, which is crucial for achieving trust and user acceptance. One significant aspect of predicting cobot behavior is understanding their perception and comprehending how they “see” the world. To tackle this challenge, we compared three different visualization techniques for Spatial Augmented Reality. All of these communicate cobot perception by visually indicating which objects in the cobot’s surrounding have been identified by their sensors. We compared the well-established visualizations <i>Wedge</i> and <i>Halo</i> against our proposed visualization <i>Line</i> in a remote user experiment with participants suffering from physical impairments. In a second remote experiment, we validated these findings with a broader non-specific user base. Our findings show that <i>Line</i>, a lower complexity visualization, results in significantly faster reaction times compared to <i>Halo</i>, and lower task load compared to both <i>Wedge</i> and <i>Halo</i>. Overall, users prefer <i>Line</i> as a more straightforward visualization. In Spatial Augmented Reality, with its known disadvantage of limited projection area size, established off-screen visualizations are not effective in communicating cobot perception and <i>Line</i> presents an easy-to-understand alternative. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T23:10:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0042ad0656ac4a78af55410b784f50bd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T23:10:22Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-0042ad0656ac4a78af55410b784f50bd2023-11-23T17:44:50ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202022-01-0122375510.3390/s22030755My Caregiver the Cobot: Comparing Visualization Techniques to Effectively Communicate Cobot Perception to People with Physical ImpairmentsMax Pascher0Kirill Kronhardt1Til Franzen2Uwe Gruenefeld3Stefan Schneegass4Jens Gerken5Human-Computer Interaction Group, Department of Media Informatics and Communication, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, 45897 Gelsenkirchen, GermanyHuman-Computer Interaction Group, Department of Media Informatics and Communication, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, 45897 Gelsenkirchen, GermanyHuman-Computer Interaction Group, Department of Media Informatics and Communication, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, 45897 Gelsenkirchen, GermanyHuman-Computer Interaction Group, Paluno—The Ruhr Institute for Software Technology, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45127 Essen, GermanyHuman-Computer Interaction Group, Paluno—The Ruhr Institute for Software Technology, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45127 Essen, GermanyHuman-Computer Interaction Group, Department of Media Informatics and Communication, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, 45897 Gelsenkirchen, GermanyNowadays, robots are found in a growing number of areas where they collaborate closely with humans. Enabled by lightweight materials and safety sensors, these cobots are gaining increasing popularity in domestic care, where they support people with physical impairments in their everyday lives. However, when cobots perform actions autonomously, it remains challenging for human collaborators to understand and predict their behavior, which is crucial for achieving trust and user acceptance. One significant aspect of predicting cobot behavior is understanding their perception and comprehending how they “see” the world. To tackle this challenge, we compared three different visualization techniques for Spatial Augmented Reality. All of these communicate cobot perception by visually indicating which objects in the cobot’s surrounding have been identified by their sensors. We compared the well-established visualizations <i>Wedge</i> and <i>Halo</i> against our proposed visualization <i>Line</i> in a remote user experiment with participants suffering from physical impairments. In a second remote experiment, we validated these findings with a broader non-specific user base. Our findings show that <i>Line</i>, a lower complexity visualization, results in significantly faster reaction times compared to <i>Halo</i>, and lower task load compared to both <i>Wedge</i> and <i>Halo</i>. Overall, users prefer <i>Line</i> as a more straightforward visualization. In Spatial Augmented Reality, with its known disadvantage of limited projection area size, established off-screen visualizations are not effective in communicating cobot perception and <i>Line</i> presents an easy-to-understand alternative.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/3/755cobothuman–robot collaborationvisualization techniquesprojectionvirtual reality |
| spellingShingle | Max Pascher Kirill Kronhardt Til Franzen Uwe Gruenefeld Stefan Schneegass Jens Gerken My Caregiver the Cobot: Comparing Visualization Techniques to Effectively Communicate Cobot Perception to People with Physical Impairments Sensors cobot human–robot collaboration visualization techniques projection virtual reality |
| title | My Caregiver the Cobot: Comparing Visualization Techniques to Effectively Communicate Cobot Perception to People with Physical Impairments |
| title_full | My Caregiver the Cobot: Comparing Visualization Techniques to Effectively Communicate Cobot Perception to People with Physical Impairments |
| title_fullStr | My Caregiver the Cobot: Comparing Visualization Techniques to Effectively Communicate Cobot Perception to People with Physical Impairments |
| title_full_unstemmed | My Caregiver the Cobot: Comparing Visualization Techniques to Effectively Communicate Cobot Perception to People with Physical Impairments |
| title_short | My Caregiver the Cobot: Comparing Visualization Techniques to Effectively Communicate Cobot Perception to People with Physical Impairments |
| title_sort | my caregiver the cobot comparing visualization techniques to effectively communicate cobot perception to people with physical impairments |
| topic | cobot human–robot collaboration visualization techniques projection virtual reality |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/3/755 |
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