Noise, But Not Uncoupled Stability, Reduces Realism and Likeability of Bilateral Teleoperation

Abstract

In bilateral teleoperation, user performance, user acceptance, and transparency are functions of the control laws that govern slave tracking and master force feedback. This study investigates the effects of teleoperator stability margin and quantization error noise on performance, likeability, and realism for a palpation task. With low noise, increased controller stiffness resulted in higher realism ratings—even when operating above the uncoupled stability limit, where the system would be unstable if the user removed his or her hand. Our results did not show any significant negative effects of stability margin on likeability or performance. In contrast, as noise increased, we observed that perceived realism and likeability of haptic feedback decreased significantly. However, noise did not impact task performance. This work aims to aid teleoperator system designers to select control parameters based on their impact on likeability, realism, and performance.