An Investigation of the Tactile Communications Channel for Robotic Control

Abstract

The impacts on performance of three different forms of communication (radio, chat, and tactile belt) were explored in the context of a small unmanned ground vehicle (SUGV) target identification task. The target identification task required a Commander with knowledge of target locations and access to a digital map displaying the current SUGV position and orientation to direct a Soldier remotely operating the SUGV to the targets using a finite set of eleven commands. The study revealed no evidence for a loss of soldier performance with the tactile belt communications channel. The finding suggests that the tactile use of haptic signals may be feasible, a potentially important finding for situations requiring covert communications.