Evaluating the Impact of Image Delays on the Rise of MMIDriven Telemanipulation Applications: Hand-Eye Coordination Interference from Visual Delays during Minute Pointing Operations

Robots with high freedom of movement can be used for minute manipulation, enabling a wide range of real-world applications. However, the use of telemanipulation systems driven by manmachine interaction (MMI) is currently limited to experimental trials, partly because the image delay during transmission interferes with the operator’s hand-eye coordination. This study examined how delays affect operation efficiency by pointing target size, and the degree of difficulty when performing telemanipulation operations. We conducted tests in which subjects performed pointing operations while visual delays interfered with their hand-eye coordination. Our findings showstatistically that regardless of target size, delay variance of 200 ms or less hardly affects operation efficiency, and that difficulty increases for a target diameter of between 4 and 2 mm