Integrating human / robot interaction into robot control architectures for defense applications

Abstract

In the near future, military robots are expected to take part in various kinds of missions in order to assist mounted as well as dismounted soldiers: reconnaissance, surveillance, supply delivery, mine clearance, retrieval of injured people, etc. However, operating such systems is still a stressful and demanding task, especially when the teleoperator is not sheltered in an armoured platform. Therefore, eectiv e man / machine interactions and their integration into control architectures appear as a key capability in order to obtain ecien t semi-autonomous systems. This article rst explains human / robot interaction (HRI) needs and constraints in several operational situations. Then it describes existing collaboration paradigms between humans and robots and the corresponding control architectures which have been considered for defense robotics applications, including behavior-based teleoperation, cooperative control or sliding autonomy. In particular, it presents our work concerning the HARPIC control architecture and the related adjustable autonomy system. Finally, it proposes some perspectives concerning more advanced co-operation schemes between humans and robots and raises more general issues about insertion and a possible standardization of HRI within robot software architectures.