Still Not Solved: A Call for Renewed Focus on User-Centered Teleoperation Interfaces

Teleoperation is one of the oldest applications of human-robot interaction, yet decades later, robots are still difficult to control in a variety of situations, especially when used by non-expert robot operators. That difficulty has relegated teleoperation to mostly expert-level use cases, though everyday jobs and lives could benefit from teleoperated robots by enabling people to get tasks done remotely. Research has made great progress by improving the capabilities of robots, and exploring a variety of interfaces to improve operator performance, but many non-expert applications of teleoperation are limited by the operator’s ability to understand and control the robot effectively. We discuss the state of the art of user-centered research for teleoperation interfaces along with challenges teleoperation researchers face and discuss how an increased focus on human-centered teleoperation research can help push teleoperation into more everyday situations.