An investigation of real world control of robotic assets under communication latency

ABSTRACT

Robots are already being used in a variety of applications, including the military battlefield. As robotic technology continues to advance, those applications will increase, as will the demands on the associated network communication links. Two experiments investigated the effects of communication latency on the control of a robot across four Levels Of Automation (LOAs), (1) full teleoperation, (2) guarded teleoperation, (3) autonomous obstacle avoidance, and (4) full autonomy. Latency parameters studied included latency duration, latency variability, and the "direction" in which the latency occurs, that is from user-to-robot or from robot-to-user. The results indicate that the higher the LOA, the better the performance in terms of both time and number of errors made, and also the more resistant to the degrading effects of latency. Subjective reports confirmed these findings. Implications of constant vs. variable-latency, user-to-robot vs. robot-to-user latency, and latency duration are also discussed.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.4 SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Additional Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.7 COMPUTERS IN OTHER SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Military

General Terms:
Experimentation, Human Factors, Performance

Keywords:
communication, control, and level of automation, delay, latency, robotics, teleoperation