EVALUATION OF A SPACE ROBOTICS CONTROL CONSOLE USING EYE TRACKING GLASSES

Abstract

This thesis seeks to evaluate the human factors of the design of the space robotics control console to be used at NASA Goddard in the OSAM-1 mission, using eye tracking glasses to gain insights into the ways in which operators interact with the various console elements. An experiment was performed in which trained robot operators wearing eye tracking glasses executed a simplified task on the ground, representative of an attention-intensive in-flight task. As the OSAM-1 mission is not scheduled to launch until 2023, the configuration of this console is still somewhat in flux, so this task was repeated three times in different possible console configurations. Drawing on previous eye tracking literature in combination with the gathered eye tracking data, conclusions were developed about this particular console and task, and more broadly, insights were gained into robot control console design in general.