3D Stereo Visualization for Mobile Robot Tele-Guide

The use of 3D stereoscopic visualization may provide a user with higher comprehension of remote environments in tele-operation when compared to 2D viewing. In particular, a higher perception of environment depth characteristics, spatial localization, remote ambient layout, as well as faster system learning and decision performance. Works in the literature have demonstrated how stereo vision contributes to improve perception of some depth cues often for abstract tasks, while little can be found about the advantages of stereoscopic visualization in mobile robot tele-guide applications. This work intends to contribute to this aspect by investigating stereoscopic robot tele-guide under different conditions, including typical navigation scenarios and the use of synthetic and real images. The purpose of this work is also to investigate how user performance may vary when employing different display technologies. In particular, experiments were carried out on different virtual reality (VR) systems having different characteristics both in terms of sense of presence and interaction capabilities provided to a user, as well as cost and portability. Results from a set of test trials ran on five VR systems emphasized few aspects which represent a base for further investigation.