Immersive Teleoperation of a Quadruped Robot with an Omnidirectional VR Treadmill: System Development and User Study

Abstract

This study presents an enhanced immersive teleoperation system for a quadruped robot through the integration of a head-mounted display (HMD) and an omnidirectional virtual reality (VR) treadmill. A unified teleoperation framework was developed and evaluated against a traditional joystick-based interface, also paired with an HMD, through a user study with $N=16$ participants. System performance was assessed using both objective and subjective metrics, including effectiveness, workload, usability, immersion, and simulator sickness. The results show that maneuvering the robot was more effective with the joystick-based interface, while participants were able to identify the targets equally well using both interfaces. A significant learning effect was observed in robot maneuvering for both interfaces, but not in target search. Overall, the treadmill-based interface increased the reported sense of presence (immersion), but at the cost of higher perceived workload, lower usability, and substantially increased simulator sickness symptoms. Despite these challenges, this work highlights a novel control approach with potential benefits for freeing the upper limbs for other teleoperation tasks (e.g., operating a manipulator mounted on the robot), as well as for users with limited hand function or related disabilities. Future work should aim to reduce VR-induced sickness and improve locomotion mappings.