Usability of a Robot Avatar Designed for the Real World: The Alter-Ego X Case Study

The interest in remotely operable robotic platforms (Avatars) for use in dangerous, domestic, and service environments is now more than ever growing. The widespread adoption of these technologies must inevitably involve a development process that puts users at the center of technological advancement, both from the perspective of those operating the system and those interacting with the system itself. With this objective in mind, we conducted a usability study of an avatar robot involving various subjects with diverse technological and educational backgrounds. Each subject, after a brief training phase, performed tasks extracted from the Ana Avatar XPRIZE, and based on this experience, evaluated the system in terms of general usability and task-specific workload. For this analysis, we used Alter-Ego X, a semi-anthropomorphic robot equipped with actuators and soft hands capable of agile movement thanks to the use of a highly maneuverable, two-wheeled mobile base. Alter-Ego X is equipped with haptic and visual feedback interfaces that complete its control station, designed to be simple, lightweight, and easily wearable. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work represents one of the first studies evaluating the use of an avatar in terms of usability, intuitiveness, and ease of use.