Ontological Reasoning for Human-Robot Teaming in Search and Rescue Missions

Abstract

In search and rescue missions robots are used to help rescue workers in exploring the disaster site. Our research focuses on how multiple robots and rescuers act as a team, and build up situation awareness. We propose a multi-agent system where each agent supports one member, either human or robot. For representing high-level information about the mission, we design an ontology that serves as a shared knowledge base for the agents. We investigate how to create agent-based ontological reasoning to provide team members with decision support, automate basic monitoring tasks, and realize the display logic that dictates how to display useful information for the rescuers, based on their different roles, tasks and situations.