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Course Objectives
Know what it takes to make a robust autonomous robot work:
Sense/Think/Act

Understand the important, approaches, research issues and challenges in autonomous robotics. Know how to program an autonomous robot.
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1 What Can Robots Be Used For?

Manufacturing 3 Ds Dirty Dull Dangerous Space Satellites, probes, planetary landers, rovers Military Agriculture Construction Entertainment Consumer?

Introduction to AI Robotics (MIT Press)

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History of Intelligent Robotics

1940s
First remote manipulators for hazardous substances

1950s
Industrial manipulators: reprogrammable and multifunctional mechanism designed to move materials, parts, tools Closed loop control
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1970s

History Continued
Automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) Precision, repeatability Emphasis on mechanical aspects

1955 term AI coined 1960s manufacturing robots

Planetary landers Machine vision research expands

1980s
Black factory First intelligent autonomous robots:
Shakey, Stanford Cart, etc

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1990s 2000s
?

History Continued
Symbolic AI/Robotics stalls Reactive/Behavior-based robotics emerges

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Intelligent Robot

Mechanical creature which can function autonomously

Mechanical= built, constructed Creature= think of it as an entity with its own motivation, decision making processes Function autonomously= can sense, act, maybe even reason; doesnt just do the same thing over and over like automation

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Intelligent Robotics

Basic robot primitives : Sense/Think/Act Three paradigms (architectures): - Hierarchical (Deliberative): Sense ->Plan ->Act ; - Reactive: Sense -> Act; - Hybrid (Deliberative/Reactive): Plan -> Sense -> Act
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Ways of Controlling a Robot

you control the robot you can view the robot and its relationship to the environment ex. radio controlled cars, bomb robots operator isnt removed from scene, not very safe

RC-ing

teleoperation

semi- or full autonomy

you control the robot you can only view the environment through the robots eyes dont have to figure out AI
you might control the robot sometimes you can only view the environment through the robots eyes ex. Sojouner with different modes human doesnt have to do everything
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Introduction to AI Robotics (MIT Press)

Teleoperation
Hazardous materials Search and rescue Some planetary rovers

Human controls robot remotely

Considerations
Feedback (video, tactile, smell?) User interfaces (cognitive fatigue, nausea) Time/distance
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Local

Components of a Telesystem (after Uttal 89)

display Local control device

Communication Remote
sensor mobility effector power

Remote Local
Communication

Sensor Mobility

Display
Control

Effector Power
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Example

Remote

Introduction to AI Robotics (MIT Press)

Local
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Typical Run

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Problems that You Saw

robot doesnt have proprioception or internal sensing to tell you what the flippers were doing. No crunching noises, no pose widget to show the flippers operator doesnt have an external viewpoint to show itself relative to the environment
no localization, mapping-> no idea how far traveled partial solution: better instrumentation (but cant do dead reckoning well) solution: two robots, one to spot the other

no feedback, couldnt really tell that the robot was stuck but finally got free

communications dropout, even though ~3 meters away lighting conditions went from dark to very bright
hard for computer vision or human to adjust
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DarkStar+7 seconds=DarkSpot

7 second communications lag (satellite relay) interruption lag on part of operator

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Predator: ~7:1 human to robot ration

Leos unofficial Predator page

4 people to control it (52-56 weeks of training)

one for flying two for instruments one for landing/takeoff

plus maintenance, sensor processing and routing lack of self-awareness in Kosovo, come along side in helicopter and shoot down
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Teleop Problems
cognitive fatigue communications dropout communications bandwidth communications lag too many people to run one robot

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Telesystems Best Suited For:

the tasks are unstructured and not repetitive the task workspace cannot be engineered to permit the use of industrial manipulators key portions of the task require dexterous manipulation, especially hand-eye coordination, but not continuously key portions of the task require object recognition or situational awareness the needs of the display technology do not exceed the limitations of the communication link (bandwidth, time delays) the availability of trained personnel is not an issue
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Teleop Solutions
improves human control, reduces simulator sickness and cognitive fatigue by providing sensory feedback to the point that teleoperator feels they are present in robots environment

Telepresence Semi-autonomous
Supervisory Control
human is involved, but routine or safe portions of the task are handled autonomously by the robot Shared Control
human initiates action, interacts with remote by adding perceptual inputs or feedback, and interrupts execution as needed

Traded Control
human initiates action, does not interact

Mixed Initiative (Guarded Control)

robot doesnt let the operator injure the robot (without override) whoever figures it out first

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Collaborative Teleoperation
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mpg: June 2, 2000 SRDR Miami Beach: view from Inuktun as it falls

mpg: June 2, 2000 SRDR Miami Beach: view from Inuktun from hoisted position

Urban is stuck, Inuktun cant help from current perspective 1. Driven off 3rd floor 2. Hoisted to 2nd floor by tether 3. Has better view, changing configuration & rocking extend view
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still: June 2, 2000 SRDR Miami Beach

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2000 AAAI Mobile Robot

Introduction to AI Robotics (MIT Press)

2 robots helping each other reduced collision errors, sped up time navigating confined space, righting
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Example: Mixed-Initiative & Collab. Teleop

9/2000 DARPA Tactical Mobile Robots demonstration Robot used an intelligent assistant agent to look for signs of snipers hiding in urban rubble
motion skin color difference in color thermal (IR camera)

Human navigated mother robot using viewpoint of 2nd robot (not in picture) Once deposited the human moved the daughter robot, and either saw a sniper or was alerted by the agent

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AI provides the other stuff

knowledge representation understanding natural langugage learning planning and problem solving inference search vision

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Summary

Teleoperation arose as an intermediate solution to autonomy, but it has a number of problems:cognitive fatigue, high comms bandwidth, short delays, and many:one human to robot ratios.
Telepresence tries to reduce cognitive fatigue through enhanced immersive environments Semi-autonomy tries to reduce fatigue, bandwidth by delegating portions of the task to robot
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