R-LUCID - Design of Robot Control Interfaces

Boston Engineerings Advanced Systems Group is collaborating with Prof. Holly Yanco at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell to develop a design science for robot-operator interfaces under a DARPA Phase I STTR program. Our program, called Robot Linked User Control and Interface Design (R-LUCID), is aimed at distilling and understanding the components of interaction including robot capability, mission scenarios, sensor capability, event and information saliency, and how human operators perceive and use interactive outputs (including visual and audible cues, touch screens, joysticks, and speech) to develop efficient and effective data presentation. We are developing software that serves as a tool kit to guide interface development via inputting various parameters and producing the interface requirements. Compared to current operator-robot interfaces, R-LUCID interfaces are designed to minimize user cognitive burden, maximize the ability of an operator-robot team to maintain synchronization and achieve maximum combined effectiveness, and execute unmanned system tasks at a military operational tempos. The properly designed interface will also reduce operator training time. An important part of this effort is focused on investigating and developing the metrics, techniques, and scenario-based approaches required to measure the improvement in operator effectiveness, and improve R-LUCID tools.