Levels of autonomy control approach for mobile robots

Increasingly mobile robots are finding applications in the military, mining, nuclear and agriculture industries. These fields require a robot capable of operating in a highly unstructured and changing environment. Current autonomous control techniques are not robust enough to allow successful operation at all times in these environments. Teleoperation can help with many tasks but causes operator fatigue and negates much of the economic advantages of using robots by requiring one person per robot. This paper introduces a control system for mobile robots based on the concept of levels of autonomy. Levels of autonomy recognizes that control can be shared between the operator and robot in a continuous fashion from teleoperation to full autonomy. By sharing control, the robot can benefit from the operator's knowledge of the world to help extricate it from difficult situations. The robot can operate as autonomously as the situation allows, reducing operator fatigue and increasing the economic benefit by allowing a single operator to control multiple robots simultaneously. This paper presents a levels of autonomy control system developed for use in exploration or reconnaissance tasks.