Cooperative Teleoperation Task in Virtual Environment - Influence of Visual Aids and Oral Communication

Cooperative virtual environments, where users simultaneously manipulate objects, is one of the subfields of Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs). In this paper we simulate the use of two string based parallel robots in cooperative teleoperation task, Two users setting on separate machines connected through local network operate each robot. In addition, the article presents the use of sensory feedback (i.e shadow, arrows and oral communication) and investigates their effects on cooperation, presence and users performance. Ten volunteers subject had to cooperatively perform a peg-in-hole task. Results revealed that shadow has a significant effect on task execution while arrows and oral communication not only increase users performance but also enhance the sense of presence and awareness. Our investigations will help in the development of teleoperation systems for cooperative assembly, surgical training and rehabilitation systems.