Programming by Demonstration (PbD) is an efficient way for non-experts to teach new skills to a robot. PbD can be carried out in different ways, for instance, by kinesthetic guidance, teleoperation or by using external controls. In this paper, we compare these three ways of controlling a robot in terms of efficiency, effectiveness (success and error rate) and usability. In an industrial assembly scenario, 51 participants carried out peg-in-hole tasks using one of the three control modalities. The results show that kinesthetic guidance produces the best results. In order to test whether the problems during teleoperation are due to the fact that users cannot, like in kinesthetic guidance, switch between control points using traditional teleoperation devices, we designed a new device that allows users to switch between controls for large and small movements. A user study with 15 participants shows that the novel teleoperation device yields almost as good results as kinesthetic guidance.

In this paper, we present a methodology that Blue Ocean Robotics, as a creator of emerging robotic solutions, has compiled based on experiences collected from “Innovation Projects”, where we implement robots in Danish municipalities on a long-term basis. Furthermore, we report on the results from two of our projects where three social robots were successfully implemented into educational institutions, increasing the children's concentration time and concentration efficiency.

In this paper, problems in instructing an industrial robot by means of a control panel are investigated. In order for the robot to learn as much and as fast as possible from demonstration, the demonstration by the teacher needs to be as precise as possible. Usability studies constitute a useful methodology to investigate in which situations users provide the robot with exact trajectories and, if not, why they face difficulties. Results show that movements involving only the lowest joint of the robot arm are straight-forward and very exact. In contrast, fine movements that involve joints of the upper arm cause considerable problems. The analysis shows that users have to employ separate actions instead of focusing on the target and therefore need to consciously plan the action since they cannot match the robot's movements with those of their own embodiment.