Tactical Reconnaissance Using Groups of Partly Autonomous UGVs

This paper investigates how one operator can control a multi-robot system for tactical reconnaissance using partly autonomous UGVs. Instead of controlling individual UGVs, the operator uses supervisory control to allocate partly autonomous UGVs into suitable groups and define areas for search. A state-of-the-art pursuit-evasion algorithm then performed the detailed control of available UGVs. The supervisory control was evaluated by allowing subjects to control either six or twelve UGVs for tactical reconnaissance along the route of advance for a convoy traveling through an urban environment with mobile threats. The results show that increasing the number of UGVs improve the subjects situation awareness, increase the number of threats that are detected, and reduce the number of hits on the convoy. More importantly, these benefits were achieved without any increase in mental workload. The results support the common belief in autonomous functions as an approach to reduce the operator-to-vehicle ratio in military applications.