Natural 3D Interaction Techniques for Locomotion with Modular Robots

Abstract

Defining 3D movements of modular robots is a challenging task, which is usually addressed with computationally expensive algorithms that aim to create self-propelling locomotion. So far only few user interfaces exist which allow a user to naturally interact with a modular robot in real-time. In this paper we present two approaches for baseline research of 3D user interfaces for intuitive manipulation of 3D movements of a modular chain-like robot in the scope of an iterative design process. We present a comparative evaluation of the techniques, which shows that they can provide intuitive human-robot interaction via remote control for real-time guidance of modular robots to move through heavy terrains and pass obstacles. In particular, our results show that steering a robot’s locomotion via rotational hand movements has benefits for challenging locomotion tasks compared to translational hand movements. We discuss the results and present lessons learned for steering user interfaces for modular robots.