An Investigation of the Effect of Latency on the Operator’s Trust and Performance for Manual Multi-robot Teleoperated Tasks

Latency is an important factor when conducting teleoperated missions. This study investigates the effects of latency on a set of dependent variables: performance (measured by time and number of errors), subjective workload, trust, and usability. These measures were tested in a simulated search-and-rescue mission over two levels of two independent variables. One independent variable was the number of robots – one or two (within-subject), and the other independent variable was latency – simulations with and without latency (between-subject.) The significant effect of the independent variables on the dependent variables were checked using repeated measure two-way ANOVA with a confidence level of 95%. The data determined any significant effects that latency and/or the number of robots had on such factors as errors, dependability, reliability, harmful outcomes, temporal demand, and frustration.