Developing performance metrics for the supervisory control of multiple robots

Abstract

Efforts are underway to make it possible for a single operator to effectively control multiple robots. In these high workload situations, many questions arise including how many robots should be in the team (Fan-out), what level of autonomy should the robots have, and when should this level of autonomy change (i.e., dynamic autonomy). We propose that a set of metric classes should be identified that can adequately answer these questions. Toward this end, we present a potential set of metric classes for human-robot teams consisting of a single human operator and multiple robots. To test the usefulness and appropriateness of this set of metric classes, we conducted a user study with simulated robots. Using the data obtained from this study, we explore the ability of this set of metric classes to answer these questions.