Automation and robotics are destined to play a critical role in the Industry 4.0 revolution, as illustrated by the emergence of autonomous machinery in earthwork operations. Despite rapid progress, autonomous agents will always require human supervision to instruct their mission and to guaranty safety when unexpected problems arise. Traditional human supervision requires an operator to physically enter each machine at risk and manually take control. This approach is time-consuming and requires highly qualified personnel capable of operating various machines. This process can be hastened and simplified by means of teleoperated supervision, which itself requires the appropriate interface. In this paper we evaluate a virtual reality (VR)-based interface using hybrid interactions and an immersive digital-twin compared to a real-life control. We compare these interfaces through control tasks performed by expert and non-expert operators, analyzing time and precision, as well as user feedback. The preliminary results show that the VR interface brings equivalent and satisfactory performances for experts and improves the efficiency of apprentices. Therefore, not only does everyone performs well in the virtual environment, but also the training time can be shortened significantly as non-experts can perform similarly under the same conditions.

Virtual reality (VR) training and teleoperation tech-nologies play a pivotal role in revolutionizing workforce de-velopment and remote machinery operation in Industry 4.0. By providing immersive, interactive, and cost-effective training solutions, they thereby enhance operational efficiency and safety standards. However, to achieve such results, they need the right tool for the right task, or in the case of VR, the right controller for the right application. This study assesses the performance of different controller types, including gaming gamepads, traditional VR controllers, and sim-ulators joysticks, in terms of user experience, task performance, and ease of use. Through a series of experiments and user feedback analyses, we identify the strengths and limitations of each controller. The results show that the joysticks, the controllers closest to the real-life interface present in excavators, are the most suited interface for our VR earthwork application despite the lack of user familiarity with this controller.