Our short paper, Challenges and Opportunities for Delay-Invariant Telerobotic Interactions, has been accepted for the 29th ACM International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2025).
Challenges and Opportunities for Delay-Invariant Telerobotic Interactions
Dries Cardinaels, Tom Veuskens, Raf Ramakers, & Kris Luyten, Short paper and poster at the ACM Intelligent User Interfaces 2025 conference.
Abstract:
Effective operation in direct-control telerobotics relies on real-time feedback, but communication delays create significant challenges, particularly for precise control. In this study, we explore these challenges through a user experiment where participants controlled a TurtleBot3 Waffle Pi under varying delay conditions. Our findings reveal recurring issues such as over-correction, unpredictable robot behavior, and reduced situational awareness. We discuss opportunities for improving delay-invariant telerobotic control, including better robot behavior predictability, feedforward mechanisms, and enhanced visual feedback. These insights highlight the need for intelligent interfaces that help operators mitigate the impact of delays, with potential applications in planetary exploration, disaster response, and other remote operations.