  In this work, we investigate whether humans can manually generate
high-quality robot paths for optical inspections. Typically, automated
algorithms are used to solve the inspection planning problem. The use of
automated algorithms implies that specialized knowledge from users is needed to
set up the algorithm. We aim to replace this need for specialized experience,
by entrusting a non-expert human user with the planning task. We augment this
user with intuitive visualizations and interactions in virtual reality. To
investigate if humans can generate high-quality inspection paths, we perform a
user study in which users from different experience categories, generate
inspection paths with the proposed virtual reality interface. From our study,
it can be concluded that users without experience can generate high-quality
inspection paths: The median inspection quality of user generated paths ranged
between 66-81\% of the quality of a state-of-the-art automated algorithm on
various inspection planning scenarios. We noticed however, a sizable variation
in the performance of users, which is a result of some typical user behaviors.
These behaviors are discussed, and possible solutions are provided.
