This work illustrates the testing of the Spot Robot performed at the training camp of Civil Protection and ANPAS (National Association of Public Assistance) in Foligno. The camp simulates the aftermath of an earthquake with different types of collapsed buildings. We teleoperated the quadruped Spot robot in different areas of the camp where Spot needs to address different challenges. The focus of the testing was not on the objective performance of the robot but on how the robot was subjectively perceived by rescuers of ANPAS and Civil Protection. Initially, we formulated and tested two hypotheses to check if locomotion in some areas is perceived better than in other areas and if there are perceivable differences when the robot is using different types of locomotion gaits. Then, we conducted unstructured interviews with participants who observed the robot in action to describe their rescue procedures and give us suggestions and opinions on what operations they expect the robot might perform.

Perceptions and Opinions of Rescuers about a Quadruped Robot in an Earthquake Scenario

This work describes an immersive control system for a quadruped robot, designed to track the head movements of the operator wearing a virtual reality eye-wear, while also utilizing joystick commands for locomotion control. The article details the implemented closed-loop velocity control approach and the locomotion task specifications. The proposed method has been implemented on a Spot robot from Boston Dynamics, with Meta Quest 2 virtual reality system. Evaluation of the approach involved a user study, where participants engaged in immersive control of the quadruped robot within an indoor experimental environment and provided feedback through standardized questionnaires. Pairwise comparison of the resulting data revealed significant advantages for the proposed immersive control system over a standard remote controller, with enhanced performance observed in the second trial of using the control system. However, participants lacking experience with virtual reality systems reported increased distress symptoms following the experiment.

Immersive Control of a Quadruped Robot with Virtual Reality Eye-Wear

WeAT6 - Design of Robots II

technical paper

[![](https://assets.underline.io/markdown_image/1/image/f25361a85b7c83a7476c0b3c1c0bb1b2.png)](https://drive.google.com/file/d/18jcAcciCBQHj6R07Dbpm2HCOBEIwAOCU/view?usp=sharing)


Dear Colleagues and Friends,

The 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, IEEE RO-MAN 2024, was held at Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, USA.

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IEEE RO-MAN 2024

The 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication was held in Pasadena, California, USA. The theme of the IEEE RO-MAN 2024 was “Embracing Human-Centered HRI”.

Zoe Betta

2

Presentations

Perceptions and Opinions of Rescuers about a Quadruped Robot in an Earthquake Scenario

Immersive Control of a Quadruped Robot with Virtual Reality Eye-Wear

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