The effect of challenging work environment on human-robot interaction and cognitive load during teleoperation: a case study of teleoperated excavator in a virtual experiment

Abstract

— Construction sites typically involve a risky, dynamic, and challenging work environment. Despite numerous safety training programs and regulations, accidents still occur in construction sites, especially when working with construction robotics. To alleviate this problem in the most fundamental way, teleoperation that allows operators to work remotely has been studied. Teleoperated construction robots have the great potential to be used in various contexts for extreme and hazardous construction sites. Here, work conditions for human-robot interaction in construction differ from those in other structured and controlled environments like manufacturing factories, and thus there is a need for the associated studies. In this paper, we aim to measure and analyze the performance of human-robot interaction and the cognitive load of human operators in dynamic and challenging construction work environments (hazardous risks such as underground utility strikes and working under time constraints).