Multi-user immersive environment for excavator teleoperation in construction.

Excavation on jobsites is a collaborative effort, with a spotter serving as an extra set of eyes for the operator to ensure safety. However, current training methods using simulators are limited in immersion and primarily designed for individual operators to practice basic skills. This paper presents a multi-user teleoperation system featured with hybrid-immersive interface and between-user communication. The effectiveness of the system is evaluated through human subject experiments. The study's findings indicate that operators experienced greater immersion, a stronger sense of presence, and improved user interaction when using an immersive interface. This paper has important implications for the future of excavation training, with potential benefits including reduced utility strike damage and the opportunity to investigate human-robot collaboration in jobsites with multiple workers performing various roles within a highly immersive operational environment. • A multi-user excavator simulation system composed of robotic control, motion capture, and hybrid-immersive interfaces. • Human subject experiments with 57 subjects to evaluate the proposed system. • The effectiveness of the system is validated by achieving higher performance metrics than the monitor-based system. • Task completion time, accuracy, and safety are significantly improved under collaborative operation with a spotter. • Enhanced human factors study of the multi-user interaction with multi-roles in the human-robot collaboration in jobsites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]