Multiagent telerobotics: matching systems to tasks

Abstract

A multiagent telerobotic system (MTS) is a system that allows a human to control a group of robots. Multiagent robotics has certain desirable properties when compared to single-agent robotics, and telerobotics has desirable properties when compared to autonomous robotics. Whether the combined field of multiagent telerobotics will inherit those advantages, however, remains to be shown. Until now, no comparison of the performance of different multiagent telerobotic systems in terms of tasks has been conducted. Therefore, there were no guidelines to aid developers building a MTS for a particular task. This research compares the performance of di erent classes of mobile behavior-based multiagent telerobotics systems in relation to the kinds of tasks they are performing. The systems are compared in terms of safety, effectiveness, and ease-of-use, for applications representing classes of tasks in a newly-developed taxonomy of mobile multiagent tasks. This taxonomy categorizes the tasks in terms of the relative motion of the agents. Four different task classifications from this taxonomy were studied. A methodology for evaluating the performance of robot systems for the tasks was adapted from standard experimental procedures, and a series of experiments was conducted, in which over a hundred human participants were used to control real robots. The end result of the experiments is a knowledge base relating the systems to the tasks. The systems were ranked in terms of their safety, effectiveness, and ease-of-use for each task. Additionally, where possible, more general results were identified, relating the type of system to the type of task. These results should guide iii future MTS developers to build safe, effective, and easy-to-use systems.