“Shoryuken? Sure, you can!” – Video game tutorial design improves teleoperation learning and experience

Abstract

Advanced robot teleoperation is a difficult task and requires operators to read comprehensive documentation to learn to properly manipulate the robot. This results in a learning experience that is not accessible for novice-users to get started with teleoperation quickly. In this thesis, I design, develop, and test a tutorial for learning how to manipulate a robot arm based on design theory from video game tutorial design to improve users’ learning experiences. I found our interactive robot tutorial improved completion time, reduced errors, increased information retention, and improved user-experience-versus-learning with the instructions that came with the industry standard robot guide. Qualitatively, I found our tutorial experience resulted in progressively improved comprehension of the robot’s control scheme, information retention, operation confidence, and overall enjoyment compared to the out-of-the-box learning experience. Our results highlight how much people can benefit with improved robot tutorials and the importance of considering the learning experience for these systems. Additionally, it acts as a call to action to further research into how to improve and develop tutorials for other robots to improve their integration into our daily life.