Preliminary Work on a Virtual Reality Interface for the Guidance of Underwater Robots

The need for intervention in underwater environments has increased in recent years but there is still a long way to go before AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicleswill be able to cope with really challenging missions. Nowadays, the solution adopted is mainly based on remote operated vehicle (ROV) technology. These ROVs are controlled from support vessels by using unnecessarily complex human–robot interfaces (HRI). Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the complexity of these systems to make them easier to use and to reduce the stress on the operator. In this paper, and as part of the TWIN roBOTs for the cooperative underwater intervention missions (TWINBOT) project, we present an HRI (Human-Robot Interface) module which includes virtual reality (VR) technology. In fact, this contribution is an improvement on a preliminary study in this field also carried out, by our laboratory. Hence, having made a concerted effort to improve usability, the HRI system designed for robot control tasks presented in this paper is substantially easier to use. In summary, reliability and feasibility of this HRI module have been demonstrated thanks to the usability tests, which include a very complete pilot study, and guarantee much more friendly and intuitive properties in the final HRI-developed module presented here.

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Hazard Identification Training Using 360-Degree Panorama vs. Virtual Reality Techniques: A Pilot Study

Computing in Civil Engineering 2019 ◽

10.1061/9780784482421.008 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

H. Frank Moore ◽

Ricardo Eiris ◽

Masoud Gheisari ◽

Behzad Esmaeili

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Hazard Identification

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Interactive Virtual Reality Assessment of Aggressive Social Information Processing in Boys with Behavior Problems: A Pilot Study

Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy ◽

10.1002/cpp.2620 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rogier E. J. Verhoef ◽

Anouk van Dijk ◽

Esmée E. Verhulp ◽

Bram O. de Castro

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Information Processing ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Behavior Problems ◽

Social Information Processing ◽

Social Information

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Analysis of motor performance in individuals with cerebral palsy using a non-immersive virtual reality task – a pilot study

Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment ◽

10.2147/ndt.s184510 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol Volume 15 ◽

pp. 417-428 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Fabiana Martins ◽

Thaís Massetti ◽

Tania Crocetta ◽

Priscila Bianchi Lopes ◽

Amanda da Silva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Cerebral Palsy ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Motor Performance ◽

Immersive Virtual Reality

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Promoting Psychological Health in Women with SCI: A Pilot Study of a Virtual-Reality Intervention Program

Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation ◽

10.1016/j.apmr.2016.08.238 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 97 (10) ◽

pp. e78

Author(s):

Susan Robinson-Whelen ◽

Rosemary B. Hughes ◽

Heather B. Taylor ◽

Margaret A. Nosek

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Psychological Health ◽

Intervention Program

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A Virtual Reality Version of the Trier Social Stress Test: A Pilot Study

Presence Teleoperators & Virtual Environments ◽

10.1162/pres_a_00052 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 325-336 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Mattias Wallergård ◽

Peter Jönsson ◽

Gerd Johansson ◽

Björn Karlson

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Stress Response ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Social Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Structured Interview ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Physiological Data ◽

Virtual Humans ◽

Arithmetic Task

One of the most common methods of inducing stress in the laboratory in order to examine the stress response in healthy and clinical populations is the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Briefly, the participant is asked to deliver a speech and to perform an arithmetic task in front of an evaluating committee. The committee, consisting of three trained actors, does not respond emotionally during the test, which makes the situation very stressful for the participant. One disadvantage of the TSST is that it can be difficult to hold the experimental conditions constant. In particular, it may be difficult for actors to hold their acting constant across all sessions. Furthermore, there are several practical problems and costs associated with hiring professional actors. A computerized version of the TSST using virtual humans could be a way to avoid these problems provided that it is able to induce a stress response similar to the one of the original TSST. The purpose of the present pilot study was therefore to investigate the stress response to a virtual reality (VR) version of the TSST visualized using an immersive VR system (VR-TSST). Seven healthy males with an average age of 24 years (range: 23–26 years) performed the VR-TSST. This included delivering a speech and performing an arithmetic task in front of an evaluating committee consisting of three virtual humans. The VR equipment was a CAVE equipped with stereoscopy and head tracking. ECG and respiration were recorded as well as the participant's behavior and comments. Afterward, a semi-structured interview was carried out. In general, the subjective and physiological data from the experiment indicated that the VR version of the TSST induced a stress response in the seven participants. In particular, the peak increase in heart rate was close to rates observed in studies using the traditional TSST with real actors. These results suggest that virtual humans visualized with an immersive VR system can be used to induce stress under laboratory conditions.

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