Exploring Tangible User Interfaces in Human-Robot Interaction

Mouse, keyboard and graphical user interfaces are commonly used in the field of human-robot interaction (HRI) for robot control. Although these traditional user interfaces are being accepted as the standard for the majority of computational tasks, their generic natural and interaction styles may not fit well with robot navigation tasks. In our proposed research, we intend to explore alternative UIs that could take the advantage of human innate skills in physical object manipulation and spatial perception to overcome the problems associated with traditional UIs. We suggest the use of tangible user interfaces (TUIs) for HRI applications, especially for one-to-many robot navigation tasks. We hope our proposed idea will give insight on future HRI interface design.