Designing more effective human-robot systems

When we use robots to explore the ocean and its inhabitants, other planets, or our co-worker’s remote office spaces, we are blending our human perceptual systems and physical actuation capabilities with robotic systems. These systems can readily become an extension of ourselves, especially after years of practice. Coming from a human-robot interaction perspective, I’ll be sharing some experiences and lessons we’ve learned from years of running field and controlled lab studies with telepresence robotic systems, including some increasingly autonomous systems. The ultimate goal of our research is to improve the design of human-robot interactions to be more human-centered by design, focusing upon the needs, pain points, and capabilities of robot users. I invite you to join in this discussion in the context of ROVs and AUVs so that we can compare notes and learn from each other’s successes and failures.