Autonomy is a critical construct related to human-robot interaction (HRI) and varies widely across robot platforms. Levels of robot autonomy (LORA), ranging from teleoperation to fully autonomous systems, influence the way in which humans and robots interact with one another. Thus, there is a need to understand HRI by identifying variables that influence---and are influenced by---robot autonomy. Our overarching goal is to develop a framework for LORA in HRI. To reach this goal, our framework draws links between HRI and human-automation interaction, a field with a long history of studying and understanding human-related variables. The construct of autonomy is reviewed and redefined within the context of HRI. Additionally, this framework proposes a process for determining a robot's autonomy level by categorizing autonomy along a 10-point taxonomy. The framework is intended to be treated as a guideline for determining autonomy, categorizing the LORA along a qualitative taxonomy and considering HRI variables (e.g., acceptance, situation awareness, reliability) that may be influenced by the LORA.

/pdf/toward-a-framework-for-levels-of-robot-autonomy-in-human-3cbszqxlno.pdf

Toward a framework for levels of robot autonomy in human-robot interaction

Robotics and autonomous systems

EEG-based brain-controlled mobile robots can serve as powerful aids for severely disabled people in their daily life, especially to help them move voluntarily. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of the complete systems, key techniques, and evaluation issues of brain-controlled mobile robots along with some insights into related future research and development issues. We first review and classify various complete systems of brain-controlled mobile robots into two categories from the perspective of their operational modes. We then describe key techniques that are used in these brain-controlled mobile robots including the brain-computer interface techniques and shared control techniques. This description is followed by an analysis of the evaluation issues of brain-controlled mobile robots including participants, tasks and environments, and evaluation metrics. We conclude this paper with a discussion of the current challenges and future research directions.

EEG-Based Brain-Controlled Mobile Robots: A Survey

The feedback upon which operators in teleoperation tasks base their control actions differs substantially from the feedback to the driver of a vehicle. On the one hand, there is often a lack of sensory information; on the other hand, there is additional status information presented via the visual channel. Haptic feedback could be used to unload the visual channel and to compensate for the lack of feedback in other modalities. For collision avoidance, haptic feedback could provide repulsive forces via the control inceptor. Haptic feedback allows operators to interpret the repulsive forces as impedance to their control deflections when a potential for collision exists. Haptic information can be generated from an artificial force field (AFF) that maps environment constraints to repulsive forces. This paper describes the design and theoretical evaluation of a novel AFF, i.e., the parametric risk field, for teleoperation of an uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV). The field allows adjustments of the size, shape, and force gradient by means of parameter settings, which determine the sensitivity of the field. Computer simulations were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the field for collision avoidance for various parameter settings. Results indicate that the novel AFF more effectively performs the collision avoidance function than potential fields known from literature. Because of its smaller size, the field yields lower repulsive forces, results in less force cancellation effects, and allows for larger UAV velocities. This indicates less operator control demand and more effective UAV operations, both expected to lead to lower operator workload, while, at the same time, increasing safety.

/pdf/artificial-force-field-for-haptic-feedback-in-uav-2duiuvdgim.pdf

Artificial Force Field for Haptic Feedback in UAV Teleoperation

A significant obstacle for service robots is the execution of complex tasks in real environments. For example, it is not easy for service robots to find objects that are partially observable and are located at a place which is not identical but near the place where the robots saw them previously. To overcome the challenge effectively, robot knowledge represented as a semantic network can be extremely useful. This paper presents an ontology-based unified robot knowledge framework that integrates low-level data with high-level knowledge for robot intelligence. This framework consists of two sections: knowledge description and knowledge association. Knowledge description includes comprehensively integrated robot knowledge derived from low-level knowledge regarding perceptual features, part objects, metric maps, and primitive behaviors, as well as high-level knowledge about perceptual concepts, objects, semantic maps, tasks, and contexts. Knowledge association uses logical inference with both unidirectional and bidirectional rules. This characteristic enables reasoning to be performed even when only a partial information is available. The experimental results that demonstrate the advantages of using the proposed knowledge framework are also presented.

Ontology-Based Unified Robot Knowledge for Service Robots in Indoor Environments

Autonomous robots are capable of navigating on their own. Shared control approaches, however, allow humans to make some navigation decisions. This is typically executed either by overriding the human or the robot control at some specific situations. In this paper, we propose a method to allow cooperation between humans and robots at each point of any given trajectory so that both have some weight in the emergent behavior of the mobile robot. This is achieved by evaluating their efficiencies at each time instant and combining their commands into a single order. In order to achieve a seamless combination, this procedure is integrated into a bottom-up architecture via a reactive layer. We have tested the proposed method using a real robot and several volunteers, and results have been satisfactory both from a quantitative and qualitative point of view.

A New Efficiency-Weighted Strategy for Continuous Human/Robot Cooperation in Navigation

Verbal communication is the most natural way of human–robot interaction. Such an interaction is usually achieved by means of a human-robot interface (HRI). In this paper, a HRI is presented to teleoperate a robotic platform via the user's voice. Hence, a speech recognition system is necessary. In this work, a user-dependent acoustic model for Spanish speakers has been developed to teleoperate a robot with a set of commands. Experimental results have been successful, both in terms of a high recognition rate and the navigation of the robot under the control of the user's voice.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0263574714000010

Command-based voice teleoperation of a mobile robot via a human-robot interface

http://www.biblioteca.uma.es/bbldoc/tesisuma/16638098.pdf

Efficient integration of metric and topological maps for directed exploration of unknown environments

Autonomous robots are capable of navigating on their own. In some cases, though, it is interesting to allow humans to influence navigation. Shared control is typically achieved either by giving control to the human or the robot at some specific situations. In this work, we propose a method to share control between humans and robots at each point of a given trajectory, so that both have weight in the resulting behavior of the mobile. This is achieved by estimating their respective local efficiencies at each time instant and combining their commands into a single order. In order to achieve a seamless combination, this procedure is integrated into a bottom-up architecture via a reactive layer. The system is meant to be used in wheelchair control for people with disabilities. Thus far, we have tested the proposed method using a Pioneer AT robot driven by several volunteers. Results have been satisfactory both from a quantitative and qualitative point of view.

Efficiency based reactive shared control for collaborative human/robot navigation

This chapter focuses on autonomous navigation for mobile robots We propose a hybrid layered architecture, which is used to navigate in totally or partially explored environments using sonar sensors Our architecture relies on a hierarchical representation of the environment, which has both a metric and a topological level, which is based on the metric level High level planning layers work at the topological level deliberatively, while low level navigation layers operate at the metric level reactively The main advantage of the proposed scheme is that it can operate in both known and unknown environments rapidly and efficiently

/pdf/hierarchical-planning-in-a-mobile-robot-for-map-learning-and-5dascmvyju.pdf

A. Poncela

Papers

A New Efficiency-Weighted Strategy for Continuous Human/Robot Cooperation in Navigation

Command-based voice teleoperation of a mobile robot via a human-robot interface

Efficient integration of metric and topological maps for directed exploration of unknown environments

Efficiency based reactive shared control for collaborative human/robot navigation

Hierarchical planning in a mobile robot for map learning and navigation