The Influence of Mass and Friction in Teleoperated Tasks

Model Mediated Teleoperation (MMT) is a method of teleoperation by which a model of the environment is displayed to the operator for delay-free feedback. The choice of the model is important to the performance of the system. A more descriptive model will give the operator more accurate feedback, but this can cause problems for the estimator and the renderer required to make MMT function. However, if certain environmental dynamics are not used by the operator to effectively manipulate the environment, they could be excluded from the feedback, thus mitigating thew problems caused for the estimator and renderer. This work investigates whether mass and friction modelling influence an operator's effectiveness at accomplishing teleoperated tasks as measured by a subjective Sense of Embodiment, environmental interaction force, and task completion time. It was found that mass had a significant influence (p<0.001) on task completion time and interaction force, whereas static and dynamic friction only had an influence on completion time when mass feedback was absent (p<0.001). In all cases, the presence of a dynamic effect increased interaction force and task completion time.