Robots have become ubiquitous tools in various industries and households, highlighting the importance of human-robot interaction (\textbf{HRI}). This has increased the need for easy and accessible communication between humans and robots. Recent research has focused on the intersection of virtual assistant technology, such as Amazon's Alexa, with robots and its effect on HRI. This paper presents the Virtual Assistant, Human, and Robots in the loop (VAHR) system, which utilizes bidirectional communication to control multiple robots through Alexa. VAHR's performance was evaluated through a human-subjects experiment, comparing objective and subjective metrics of traditional keyboard and mouse interfaces to VAHR. The results showed that VAHR required 41\% less Robot Attention Demand and ensured 91% more Fan-out time compared to the standard method. Additionally, VAHR led to a 62.5% improvement in multi-tasking, highlighting the potential for efficient human-robot interaction in physically- and mentally-demanding scenarios. However, subjective metrics revealed a need for human operators to build confidence and trust with this new method of operation.

翻译：机器人已成为各行业和家庭中的普遍工具，凸显了人机交互（**HRI**）的重要性，这增加了对人类与机器人之间便捷沟通的需求。近期研究聚焦于虚拟助手技术（如亚马逊Alexa）与机器人的交叉领域及其对人机交互的影响。本文提出了虚拟助手、人类与机器人在回路（VAHR）系统，通过双向通信利用Alexa控制多台机器人。通过受试者实验评估VAHR性能，对比传统键盘鼠标界面的客观与主观指标。结果表明，相比标准方法，VAHR将机器人注意力需求降低41%，并确保91%更高的扇出时间。此外，VAHR使多任务处理效率提升62.5%，凸显了在体力与脑力高强度场景中实现高效人机交互的潜力。然而主观指标显示，操作者需通过这种新操作方式建立信心与信任。