Developing Accessible Teleoperation Interfaces for Assistive Robots with Stakeholders

Abstract

Mobile manipulator robots have the potential to empower individuals with motor limitations to interact with the physical world around them. While many interfaces have been developed for teleoperating complex robots, most of them are not accessible to people with motor limitations or are rigid with limited configurations. Further, they are not readily available to download and use. To address these barriers, we developed the AccessTeleopKit: an open-source toolkit for creating custom and accessible robot teleoperation interfaces based on cursor-and-click input for the Stretch 3 mobile-manipulator. The toolkit was developed through several years of iteration involving three key stakeholders: (1) people with motor limitations, (2) their caregivers, and (3) occupational therapists (OT). The robot was deployed in the home of an older adult with quadriplegia and his wife/primary caregiver, with the help of an OT who helped focus the robot's functionality on enabling the end-user to achieve his goals. This dissertation presents a multi-year design and development process with stakeholders that lead to the AccessTeleopKit and recommendations on how to design robots for the OT toolbox. We lay the groundwork for enabling the deployment of assistive robots in homes with the assistance of OTs.