Augmented-Reality-Based Visualization of Navigation Data of Mobile Robots on the Microsoft Hololens -- Possibilities and Limitations

Abstract

The demand for mobile robots has rapidly increased in recent years due to the flexibility and high variety of application fields comparing to static robots. To deal with complex tasks such as navigation, they work with high amounts of different sensor data making it difficult to operate with for non-experts. To enhance user understanding and human robot interaction, we propose an approach to visualize the navigation stack within a cutting edge 3D Augmented Reality devicethe Microsoft Hololens. Therefore, relevant navigation stack data including laser scan, environment map and path planing data are visualized in 3D within the head mounted device. Based on that prototype, we evaluate the Hololens in terms of computational capabilities and limitations for dealing with huge amount of real-time data. Results show that the Hololens is capable of a proper visualization of huge amounts of sensor data. We demonstrate a proper visualization of navigation stack data in 3D within the Hololens. However, there are limitations when transferring and displaying different kinds of data simultaneously.

Watch out for the Robot! Designing Visual Feedback Safety Techniques When Interacting With Encountered-Type Haptic Displays

“…Thus, these researchers conceived an AR system that displayed the robot's path planning for avoiding potential risks of collisions with users. Other approaches come from visualizing robot navigation data in mixed reality as in Kästner andLambrecht (2019) system, andShepherd et al (2019) system that displays the co-located robot's trajectory.…”

“…Additionally, commercial VR systems such as SteamVR Steam (2021) and Oculus SDK Oculus (2021) use visual feedback that displays the workspace limits. In the case of human-robot collaboration, literature suggests giving users visual feedback about the robotic system's behavior as a way to increase users' perceived safety when interacting with a robot in virtual reality (Guhl et al, 2018;Kästner and Lambrecht, 2019;Oyekan et al, 2019). However, in the case of ETHDs, disclosing too much information about the robotic actuator's behavior might break users' immersion in a VR application.…”