Human factors in space telepresence

Human Factors in Space Telepresence1. IntroductionThis report discusses the problems of interfacing a humanwith a teleoperation system, for work in space. Much of theinformation presented here is the result of experience gainedby the M.I.T. Space Systems Laboratory during the past twoyears of work on the ARAMIS (Automation, Robotics, andMachine Intelligence Systems) project (NASA contractSNAS8-34381).Many factors impact the design of the man-machine inter-face for a teleoperator.- In this paper the effects of eachare described in turn. An annotated bibliography gives thekey references that were used. No conclusions can be pre-sented as a "best design/" since much depends on theparticular application desired, and the relevant technologyis swiftly changing.Much of the traditional work in human factors researchis in the area of anthropometry. This work is mentioned inthe section on Human Capabilities, but is not discussed indepth since this information is difficult to systematize,and too voluminous to .enumerate here. Quite a bit of thisdata is required for the final design of a man-machinesystem, but the main issues dealt with here concernarchitecture-level alternatives. These depend more on somebroad .aspects of human behavior (which can be described