Multimodal displays to enhance human robot interaction on-the-move

Abstract

The U.S. Army is exploring the use of advanced technologies such as tactile and spatial (3-D) audio displays to enhance Soldier performance in human-robot interaction (HRI) tasks. A field study was conducted at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in 2006 to determine the extent to which the integration of spatial auditory and tactile displays affects soldier situation awareness in a simulated UV HRI target search task performed in a moving HMMWV. Participants were 12 civilian males ranging in age from 18 to 46 years, with a mean age of 32 years. Participants performed a target search task, in which they searched for one target symbol among 50 non-target symbols displayed on an 18-inch diagonal computer monitor (a 30° field of view (FOV) visual display). Participants received audio and tactile cues to indicate on which third of a computer screen the target symbol was located. The independent variables were display modality, signal azimuth, participant age, and HMMWV movement condition. Display modalities were visual displays with supplemental cues in three display modalities; spatial audio, tactile, and combined spatial audio + tactile. The dependent variables were participant response time and accuracy, as well as the participant's subjective workload rating of display modality effectiveness. Accuracy data indicated that participants located over 99% of the targets correctly. Display modality was significant in terms of participant workload ratings, but was not significant for response time. Response time data indicated that no one display modality provided the shortest response time to all age groups, for all terrains. Workload with auditory + tactile displays was rated lowest of the three display modalities, which may have been because the combination audio + tactile display incorporated cues from both the audio and tactile modalities, an advantage in an environment with strong auditory and tactile distractors. The discrepancy between the workload and the performance data indicate that a greater understanding is needed of the role of each modality in on-the-move operations. Future research will deal with multimodal directional cues that can inform Soldiers of important HRI events 360° around of their field of view.