Rescue robots are equipped with a variety of sensors to enable them to search through a post-disaster environment to locate survivors. Video cameras and proximity sensors are used to find a path through the environment, while audio, heat, and CO2 sensors are used both to locate survivors and determine their condition. This means that robot operators need to integrate sensor data in order to navigate the space successfully and to determine the condition of survivors. This research investigates the use of a torso-mounted vibrotactile display to convey some of the sensor information to the operator. For example, a tactile cue can be given in the direction of an interesting temperature reading. As the operator turns the robot toward the source, the vibrotactile cue will move around the torso until it is centered in front of the operator, which can in turn provide a direction vector for the robot to follow in seeking the heat source. The goal of this project is to empirically determine the best ways to used vibrotactile feedback in the control of rescue robots. The intellectual merit of the work lies in its novelty and difficulty. Past applications of haptics have centered on force feedback for manipulators, or using haptic devices as controllers. In contrast, in this project the PI plans to use a vibrotactile display to improve the operator's situational awareness. Specifically, questions such as which sensor data is best suited to haptic display, how to map the data to tactors, and how effectively does the haptic display convey information to the operator, must be answered empirically.
Broader Impacts: Answers to questions such as those enumerated above will have broad impacts that extend beyond the application to rescue robots, to encompass any use of wearable haptics to enhance situational awareness. For example, researchers have considered haptic displays as a means of providing wayfinding information to the blind, particularly to the blind and deaf, or to the blind with limited mobility such as being confined to a wheel chair.
