Effectiveness of engineering practices for the acquisition and employment of robotic systems

This thesis is concerned with the identification of engineering practices that most influence the ability of an organization to successfully acquire and employ a robot. Of specific interest are the matches or mismatches between our technical efforts and achieving robotic systems that are suitable for the intended purpose. From a survey of engineers (n=18) who have advised or performed the acquisition of robots, candidate relations between engineering practices and system success metrics are proposed. Those relationships are then evaluated against a 5 case studies and one mini-study to examine more closely how the practices are implemented as specific engineering methods in context. From those observations, a series project feasibility rationales are proposed to aid engineers and managers evaluate the feasibility of their robotic system acquisition.1 1The views expressed in this report are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.