EAGER: HCC: Exploring Human Factors: Is a Teleoperated Robotics Framework Feasible for Persons who are Visually Impaired?

Visual impairment (blind or low vision) affects over seven million people in the United States. Their daily activities are more challenging. They also have a harder time finding and keeping jobs.

One major challenge for people who are blind or have low vision is getting around in unfamiliar places. Such places can change often and be unpredictable. Employers worry about hiring people with visual impairments because of potential legal issues.

New developments in robotics could help people with visual impairments. This project will figure out if people with visual impairments can use robots at work. Telerobots have a human user who drives the robot, while the robot supplies sensor data.

The research team will do surveys, interviews, and studies with individuals who have visual impairments. This will help to identify problems with training people with visual impairments to use telerobots. The goal is to help blind and low vision users to be independent and hold technology jobs.

The project has several aims. The research team is partnering with Austin Lighthouse (ALH). ALH employs hundreds of legally blind and low vision warehouse workers.

Surveys will clarify the challenges people with visual impairments have getting or keeping jobs. We will interview employees at ALH to understand their needs and if they want to use the technology. Another aim is to design and do pilot studies that simulate telerobotic tasks.

This will help us learn how to train blind and low vision individuals to use telerobots. It will also help make the system easier and more intuitive to use. The team will test different user interfaces to develop a telerobotic training prototype.

The team will confirm the survey and interview results through telerobot training sessions. These results could give insights into how blind and low vision people do physical tasks.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.