We explore task tolerances, i.e., allowable position or rotation inaccuracy, as an important resource to facilitate smooth and effective telemanipulation. Task tolerances provide a robot flexibility to generate smooth and feasible motions; however, in teleoperation, this flexibility may make the user's control less direct. In this work, we implemented a telemanipulation system that allows a robot to autonomously adjust its configuration within task tolerances. We conducted a user study comparing a telemanipulation paradigm that exploits task tolerances (functional mimicry) to a paradigm that requires the robot to exactly mimic its human operator (exact mimicry), and assess how the choice in paradigm shapes user experience and task performance. Our results show that autonomous adjustments within task tolerances can lead to performance improvements without sacrificing perceived control of the robot. Additionally, we find that users perceive the robot to be more under control, predictable, fluent, and trustworthy in functional mimicry than in exact mimicry.

翻译：我们探索了任务容限，即允许的位置或旋转不精确度，作为促进平滑有效遥操作的重要资源。任务容限赋予机器人灵活性，以生成平滑且可行的运动；然而，在遥操作中，这种灵活性可能降低用户控制的直接性。本研究实现了一个允许机器人在任务容限内自主调整构型的遥操作系统。我们开展了一项用户研究，比较了利用任务容限的遥操作范式（功能性模仿）与要求机器人精确模仿人类操作员的范式（精确模仿），并评估范式选择如何影响用户体验与任务性能。结果表明，任务容限内的自主调整可在不牺牲用户对机器人感知控制的前提下提升性能。此外，我们发现在功能性模仿中，用户感知到机器人更可控、可预测、流畅且值得信赖，优于精确模仿。