Collaborative Control: A Robot-Centric Model for Vehicle Teleoperation

Agents with Adjustable Autonomy

Volume

Papers from the 1999 AAAI Spring Symposium

Contents

Telerobotic systems have traditionally been designed and operated from a human point of view. Though this approach suffices for some domains, it is sub-optimal for tasks such as operating multiple vehicles or controlling planetary rovers. Thus, we believe it is worthwhile to examine a new approach: collaborative control. In this robot-centric teleoperation model, instead of the human always being in charge, the robot works as a peer and makes requests of the human. In other words, the human is treated as an imprecise, limited source of information, planning and capability, just as other noisy system modules. To examine the numerous human-machine interaction and design issues raised by this new approach, we are building a vehicle teleoperation system using collaborative control. In this paper, we present our current design and implementation.