Christian B. Carstens

About

Christian B. Carstens is a human factors researcher specializing in military robotics, human-robot interaction, and the design of intuitive control interfaces for dismounted warfighters. Working primarily in collaboration with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory's Human Research and Engineering Directorate, Carstens has made significant contributions to understanding how soldiers can most effectively operate robotic systems in operational contexts, accumulating over 80 citations across his published work. His research has systematically examined the scalability of robotic controllers and displays, investigating how interface size, display configuration, and control modality affect teleoperation performance in realistic military settings. A particularly noteworthy contribution is his work on speech-based robotic control, which demonstrated that voice-commanded operation meaningfully reduces cognitive and physical workload, freeing soldiers to perform secondary tasks more efficiently. His studies on progressive autonomy further explored how varying levels of robot independence influence reconnaissance performance, offering practical guidance for system designers. Conducted primarily at Fort Benning, Georgia with real soldiers as participants, Carstens' work is distinguished by its strong applied validity. His sustained focus on making robotic control systems smaller, lighter, and more intuitive has directly informed the development of next-generation battlefield robotics, with implications for soldier safety and operational effectiveness.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Scalability of Robotic Controllers: An Evaluation of Controller Options

   15 citations · 2008
2. 2
   Intuitive Speech-based Robotic Control

   14 citations · 2010
3. 3
   Scalability of Robotic Displays: Display Size Investigation

   9 citations · 2008
4. 4
   A tactile option to reduce robot controller size

   8 citations · 2008
5. 5
   Scalability of Robotic Controllers: Effects of Progressive Levels of Autonomy on Robotic Reconnaissance Tasks

   7 citations · 2010
6. 6
   Scalability of Robotic Controllers: Speech-Based Robotic Controller Evaluation

   7 citations · 2009
7. 7
   Scalability of Robotic Controllers: An Evaluation of Controller Options-Experiment II

   7 citations · 2011
8. 8
   Scaling Robotic Systems for Dismounted Warfighters

   6 citations · 2011
9. 9
   Scaling Robotic Displays: Visual and Multimodal Options for Navigation by Dismounted Soldiers

   6 citations · 2009
10. 10
    Scaling Robotic Displays: Displays and Techniques for Dismounted Movement with Robots

    4 citations · 2010

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links