Design and Evaluation of a Collaborative Teleoperation Interface for Multi-Operator Multi-Robot Systems in Challenging Environments

Multi-robot systems that combine the complementary capabilities of specialised platforms are critical for complex missions in challenging, inaccessible environments. Current deployments assign an operator or operator team to each robot, with collaboration relying on operator-to-operator communication to manually coordinate heterogeneous platforms with incompatible interfaces. This operator-dependent approach increases cognitive load and limits scalability across robots from different manufacturers. This study designs and evaluates a shared collaborative teleoperation interface to improve operator coordination, situational awareness, and the task performance in multi-operator, multi-robot systems. 

A comparative user study with 16 participants (8 participant pairs) compared three teleoperation conditions: co-located operators with a shared interface, remote operators with a shared interface, and co-located operators with individual interfaces. Participants controlled two simulated robots, a sensor-equipped drone and a manipulator equipped ground robot, in a nuclear power plant digital twin to complete disaster response tasks: radiation source identification and deactivation, and locating and retrieving a rescue dummy to safety. Performance metrics, physiological data, and behavioural measures were recorded to comprehensively assess task performance, cognitive load, and operator awareness across conditions.  The co-located sharedinterface condition achieved the fastest mission completion (292.8 s), outperforming remote operation (351.6 s) and individual interfaces (385.1 s), with the fewest collisions (0.9 per trial) and highest situational awareness accuracy (91.1%). Physical co-presence was the primary driver of reduced cognitive load, with NASA-TLX scores increasing from 38.2 in colocated to 57.7 in remote operation, supported by consistent physiological indicators.

These results demonstrate that co-presence and shared interfaces provide complementary benefits, supporting workload regulation and mutual awareness respectively in multi-operator, multi-robot teleoperation. This research presents a collaborative teleoperation interface that reduces operator cognitive load and improves task performance in multi-robot systems, addressing critical gaps in operator communication and robot coordination for safety-critical remote operations.