Escape together – Measuring Efficiency, Presence and Cognitive Load in a Collaborative Telepresence Task
Jennifer Brade, Sarah Mandl, Valeska Vitt, Franziska Klimant, Anja Strobel, Martin Dix · 2025
Remote support via telepresence robots extends traditional telepresence use by enabling users not only to see and hear but also to move within the remote environment. This mobility opens new opportunities for collaboration in dispersed teams, offering clear advantages such as flexibility and resource efficiency. However, it remains unclear how such setups are experienced by the team members involved. In this experimental study, we designed a collaborative scavenger hunt with one participant remotely operating a telepresence robot and another participant being physically present on-site. Together, they solved a series of tasks, and their experiences were evaluated in terms of teaming, workload, and presence. Descriptive results indicate a generally positive collaboration experience, with similar levels of perceived workload across both participant groups and high ratings of social presence and engagement. These findings highlight the potential of telepresence robots for distributed collaboration and provide a valuable foundation for future studies aimed at optimizing their use in more complex, real-world scenarios.