<title>Designing a user interface for service operations of an intelligent mobile manipulator</title>

Abstract

User interfaces play an increasingly important role in robot applications. This paper presents the design and implementation of a multi-modal user interface for a mobile manipulator, consisting of an autonomous vehicle with a manipulator on it. It is capable of navigating in a real world and doing useful manipulations. The system is intended to provide services for handicapped people. The user interface is crucial for such a user to benefit from the services. The user interface designed for the system makes advantage of multimedia technology and combines graphics, speech and visualization into a coherent multi-modal interface. It serves as a user command interpreter, robot monitor and simulator. A user-centered design approach is adopted for enhanced understandability and usability.