Telerobotics has shown promise in helping workers safely manipulate building components on construction sites; however, its primary reliance on visual feedback limits efficiency in situations with stiff contact or poor visibility. Reliable and economical haptic feedback could fill this perception gap and facilitate construction activities. Thus, we designed an audio-based haptic feedback system that measures the vibrations experienced by the robot tools and enables the operator to feel them in real time. Accurate haptic transmission was achieved by optimizing the positions of the system's off-the-shelf accelerometers and voice-coil actuators. A user study was conducted to evaluate how this naturalistic type of vibration feedback affects the operator's performance in telerobotic assembly. Thirty participants used a bimanual teleoperation system to build a structure under three randomly ordered haptic feedback conditions: no vibrations, one-axis vibrations, and three-axis vibrations. The results show that users took advantage of both kinds of haptic feedback after gaining some experience with the task, causing significantly lower vibrations and forces in the second trial. Subjective responses indicate that haptic feedback reduced the perceived task difficulty, task duration, and fatigue. These results demonstrate that providing this type of vibrotactile feedback on teleoperated construction robots would enhance user performance and experience.

翻译：遥操作机器人技术在帮助工人安全操作建筑工地构件方面展现出前景，然而其主要依赖视觉反馈的方式在刚性接触或能见度差的场景中限制了效率。可靠且经济的触觉反馈能够填补这一感知缺口，促进施工活动。为此，我们设计了一种基于音频的触觉反馈系统，该系统可测量机器人工具所经历的振动，并使操作员能够实时感知这些振动。通过优化系统中商用加速度计和音圈致动器的位置，实现了精确的触觉传输。我们开展了一项用户研究，评估这种自然类型的振动反馈如何影响操作员在遥操作机器人装配中的表现。三十名参与者使用双臂遥操作系统，在三种随机排序的触觉反馈条件下搭建结构：无振动、单轴振动和三轴振动。结果显示，用户在积累一定任务经验后能同时利用两种触觉反馈的优势，在第二次试验中显著降低了振动和力。主观反馈表明，触觉反馈减少了感知到的任务难度、任务时长和疲劳感。这些结果表明，在遥操作施工机器人上提供此类振动触觉反馈将提升用户表现和体验。