{"682404":{"#nid":"682404","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Researchers Say Stress \u201cSweet Spot\u201d Can Improve Remote Operators\u0027 Performance","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMilitary drone pilots, disaster search and rescue teams, and astronauts stationed on the International Space Station are often required to remotely control robots while maintaining their concentration for hours at a time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech roboticists are attempting to identify the most stressful periods that human teleoperators experience while performing tasks remotely. A novel study provides new insights into determining when a teleoperator needs to operate at a high level of focus and which parts of the task can be delegated to robot automation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESchool of Interactive Computing Associate Professor \u003Cstrong\u003EMatthew\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EGombolay\u003C\/strong\u003E calls it the \u201csweet spot\u201d of human ingenuity and robotic precision. Gombolay and students from his \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/core-robotics.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECORE Robotics Lab\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003Econducted a novel study that measures stress and workload on human teleoperators.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGombolay said it can inform military officials on how to strategically implement task automation and maximize human teleoperator performance.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHumans continue to hand over more tasks to robots to perform, but Gombolay said that some functions will still require human input and oversight for the foreseeable future.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESpecific applications, such as space exploration, commercial and military aviation, disaster relief, and search and rescue, pose substantial safety concerns. Astronauts stationed on the International Space Station, for example, manually control robots that bring in supplies, move cargo, and make structural repairs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s brutal from a psychological perspective,\u201d Gombolay said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe question often asked about automating a task in these fields is, at what point can a robot be trusted more than a human?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA recent paper by Gombolay and his current and former students \u2014 \u003Cstrong\u003ESam\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EYi\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003ETing\u003C\/strong\u003E, \u003Cstrong\u003EErin\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EHedlund\u003C\/strong\u003E-\u003Cstrong\u003EBotti\u003C\/strong\u003E, and \u003Cstrong\u003EManisha\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003ENatarajan\u003C\/strong\u003E \u2014 sheds new light on the debate. The paper was published in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters and will be presented at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Atlanta.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe NASA-funded study can identify which aspects of tedious, time-consuming tasks can be automated and which require human supervision. If roboticists can pinpoint the elements of a task that cause the least stress, they can automate these components and enable humans to oversee the more challenging aspects.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf we\u2019re talking about repetitive tasks, robots do better with that, so if you can automate it, you should,\u201d said Ting, a former grad student and lead author of the paper. \u201cI don\u2019t think humans enjoy doing repetitive tasks. We can move toward a better future with automation.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMilitary officials, for example, could measure the stress of remote drone pilots and know which times during a pilot\u2019s shift require the highest level of attention.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe can get a sense of how stressed you are and create models of how divided your attention is and the performance rate of the tasks you\u2019re doing,\u201d Gombolay said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt can be a low-stress or high-stress situation depending on the stakes and what\u2019s going on with you personally. Are you well-caffeinated? Well-rested? Is there stress from home you\u2019re bringing with you to the workplace? The goal is to predict how good your task performance will be. If it indicates it might be poor, we may need to outsource work to other people or create a safe space for the operator to destress.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Stress Test\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor their study, the researchers cut a small river-shaped path into a medium-density fiberboard. The exercise required the 24 participants to use a remote robotic arm to navigate through the path from one end to the other without touching the edges.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe experiment grew more challenging as new stress conditions and workload requirements were introduced. The changing conditions required the test participants to multitask to complete the assignment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGombolay said the study supports the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which states that moderate levels of stress increase human performance.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe experiment showed that operators felt overwhelmed and performed poorly when multitasking was introduced. Too much stress led to poor performance, but a moderate amount of stress induced more engagement and enhanced teleoperator focus.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETing said finding that ideal stress zone can lead to a higher performance rating.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYou would think the more stressed you are, the more your performance decreases,\u201d Ting said. \u201cMost people didn\u2019t react that way. As stress increased, performance increased, but when you increased workload and gave them more to do, that\u2019s when you started seeing deteriorating performance.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGombolay said no stress can be just as detrimental as too much stress. Performing a task without stress tends to cause teleoperators to become disinterested, especially if it is repetitive and time-consuming.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cNo stress led to complacency,\u201d Gombolay said. \u201cThey weren\u2019t as engaged in completing the task.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf your excitement is too low, you get so bored you can\u2019t muster the cognitive energy to reason about robot operation problems.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Human Factor\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERoboticists have made significant leaps in recent years to remove teleoperators from the equation. Still, Gombolay said it\u2019s too early to tell whether robots can be trusted with any task that a human can perform.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019re a long way from full autonomy,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot that robots still can\u2019t do without a human operator. Search and rescue operations, if a building collapses, we don\u2019t have much training data for robots to go through rubble by themselves to rescue people. There are ethical needs for humans to be able to supervise or take direct control of robots.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers at Georgia Tech are exploring the relationship between stress levels and the performance of remote robot operators. They found a moderate level of of stress can enhance performance and keep operators engaged and focused.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech researchers say there\u0027s a \u0022sweet spot\u0022 of stress that can enhance performance of remote robot operators such as drone pilots and astronauts."}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2025-05-15 13:08:48","changed_gmt":"2025-07-15 15:05:39","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-05-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2025-05-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"147","name":"Military Technology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}