Coordinating a Team of Robots for Urban Reconnaisance

Abstract

Gathering intelligence about a potentially hostile environment is a critical capability for war fighters. Using a team of robots for this task is an attractive option because it allows data to be gathered quickly while simultaneously removing humans from danger. However, fielding a team of robots requires three key problems to be solved: first, the human commander must be able to efficiently interact with the robots and issue orders that they can understand; second, the system must be able to decompose orders into tasks for individual robots; and third, the robots must have the perceptual capabilities needed to operate for extended periods of time without operator assistance. In this paper, we present our solutions to these problems, and demonstrate our approaches using our test-bed which allows a single operator to control fifteen robots.