GR1 - Task analysis

User analysis

Our user base comprises of three basic classes: beginners, intermediate users and advanced users.

Typical Characteristics of the classes are:

(1) Novice Users: Hobbyists and UROPs

• Age : Variable since the user could be novice to the robotic system at any age but a substantial chunk would be from late-teens or early 20s (UROP age).
• Education : Well-educated individuals with analytical skills and ability to comprehend mathematical charts.
• Physical Limitations : Our user audience is one that is capable of being mobile on the robotic arena to justify the need for a mobile interface.
• Computer experience: Ability to operate a phone app interface, to operate the robot's software and initiate experiments via the computer. No prior programming or networks experience is necessary.
• Motivation: Motivated learners interested in learning about robotic system, controls and performance.
• Domain Experience : No prior experience with LCM or communication tools required.
• Application Experience : Ability to use a phone app and read analytical charts.
• Work Environment and Social Context: This user with work under a supervisor who has significant experience in a robotics lab in terms of software and hardware. He/she would be working on a specific subsystem in the lab.

(2) Intermediate Users: Industry researchers and Visiting students to a Robotics Lab

• Age : Can vary from mid-20s to a variable age where-in the individual is active in a Robotics Lab
• Education : Well-educated individuals with analytical skills and ability to comprehend mathematical charts. They would be highly motivated to perform research tasks and familiar with the specifics of their hardware and software
• Physical Limitations : Our user audience is one that is capable of being mobile on the robotic arena to justify the need for a mobile interface.
• Computer experience: Expert computer users who mostly use Linux based systems and are familiar with medium to heavy command line use. They understand networking at a medium level i.e. know what an IP address is and are familiar with TCP, UDP, broadcast, etc
• Motivation: Motivated robotics researchers who are willing to dedicate large amounts of time to understanding robot dynamics, interactions, controls. They are experimentalists but are too busy to dedicate large amounts of time to learning new interfaces unless its use is immediately obvious. Communication latency and delay are important considerations for the interface model they use.
• Domain Experience : May have used communication tools such as LCM before
• Application Experience : May have used desktop applications such as LCM-spy (previous desktop interface) whose output is an array of floats.
• Work Environment and Social Context: This user class works in 5-20 person labs. They are willing and able to ask for help and collaborate significantly with each other in terms of exchanging tools and debating results. Environment noise level varies: one user operates a wind tunnel and another user operates a very loud air compressor.

(3) Advanced users: Academia Researchers in Robotics

• Age : Can vary from mid-20s to a variable age where-in the individual is active in a Robotics Lab
• Education : Well-educated individuals with analytical skills and ability to comprehend mathematical charts. They would be highly motivated to perform research tasks and familiar with the specifics of their hardware and software
• Physical Limitations : Our user audience is one that is capable of being mobile on the robotic arena to justify the need for a mobile interface.
• Computer experience: Expert computer users who mostly use Linux based systems and are familiar with medium to heavy command line use. They understand networking at a medium level i.e. know what an IP address is and are familiar with TCP, UDP, broadcast, etc
• Motivation: Motivated robotics researchers who are willing to dedicate large amounts of time to understanding robot dynamics, interactions, controls. They are experimentalists but are too busy to dedicate large amounts of time to learning new interfaces unless its use is immediately obvious. Communication latency and delay are important considerations for the interface model they use.
• Domain Experience : Have used communication tools such as LCM before
• Application Experience : Have used desktop applications such as LCM-spy (previous desktop interface) whose output is an array of floats.
• Work Environment and Social Context: This user class works in 5-20 person labs. They are willing and able to ask for help and collaborate significantly with each other in terms of exchanging tools and debating results. Environment noise level varies: one user operates a wind tunnel and another user operates a very loud air compressor.

Task analysis

...compiling now...

Domain analysis

Comments:
Even though messages are created by a single process, they cannot identify the process.

However, we assume that the user has some implicit knowledge about which processes publish on which channels.

References

LCM project hosting

http://code.google.com/p/lcm/

LCM Overview

http://lcm.googlecode.com/files/2010-huang-olson-moore-lcm-iros.pdf