Towards facilitating the use of a pan-tilt camera on a mobile robot

Abstract

Pan-tilt cameras are useful for mobile robots because they allow an operator to view the environment around the robot without moving the robot. However, pan-tilt cameras can lead to operator confusion and error when the camera is off-center and the operator is navigating the robot. To facilitate the use of a pan-tilt camera, we use a 3D augmented virtuality display to render the video stream at an angle that corresponds to the orientation of the real camera. This provides an intuitive representation of the pan and tilt angles of the camera as they relate to the orientation of the robot. We validate using the 3D display to represent a pan-tilt camera's orientation through a user study in simulated environments.