Complementing Human Perception in Remote Site Exploration using Augmented Reality - A Proof of Concept

This paper describes the proof of concept of a system for increasing situational awareness during remote site exploration using unmanned vehicles that leverages augmented reality techniques. When remote piloting an unmanned vehicle that needs to enter an unknown site, the operator may lose direct line of sight to the vehicle due to the presence of obstacles. In such a situation the operator may resort only to onboard cameras or sensors in general for situational awareness and the risk of "spatial disorientation" dramatically increases. This paper describes and demonstrates with laboratory tests the basic building blocks needed to build an augmented reality tool that would allow the operator to see an avatar of its vehicle through the obstacles, as if they were transparent, with particular attention to facilitating his/her perception of depth, a key point in making the whole concept usable. The basic idea is first presented, then, after a brief review of the mathematics behind the realization of the augmented reality tool, the rationale for the need of a calibration procedure is shown together with the details of a possible solution of the problem that is specific for this particular application. A discussion on registration errors is presented together with the results of an experimental validation using a Meta Oculus Quest and an indoor motion tracking system.