Evaluating user interface of multimodal teaching advisor implemented on a wearable personal computer

A multimodal teaching advisor (MTA) that utilizes the work-site operator's know-how and robotic-system information, including that obtained from senso rs, in a complementary manner has been enhanced and implemented on a wearab le personal computer (WPC) for use with sensor-enhanced robotic systems use d in manufacturing. The MTA's software was enhanced to acquire and monitor sensory and robot-motion data. The MTA presents support information to the operator via graphical and speech user interfaces in the WPC. Experimental results for a spatial-path-tracking task performed using a laser range find er showed that the MTA's operation was greatly improved. In particular, the simultaneous provision of support information via both the graphical and s peech interfaces shortened the time taken for the operator to teach a robot using a teaching pendant.