Understanding Control Frames in Multi-Camera Robot Telemanipulation

Abstract

In telemanipulation, showing the user multiple views of the remote environment can offer many benefits, although such different views can also create a problem for control. Systems must either choose a single fixed control frame, aligned with at most one of the views or switch between view-aligned control frames, enabling view-aligned control at the expense of switching costs. In this paper, we explore the trade-off between these options. We study the feasibility, benefits, and drawbacks of switching the user's control frame to align with the actively used view during telemanipulation. We additionally explore the effectiveness of explicit and implicit methods for switching control frames. Our results show that switching between multiple view-specific control frames offers significant performance gains compared to a fixed control frame. We also find personal preferences for explicit or implicit switching based on how participants planned their movements. Our findings offer concrete design guidelines for future multi-camera interfaces.