Design of an Interface for Teams of Heterogeneous Unmanned Vehicles Project Definition

Project Description

This project will generate an interface design capable of enabling unmanned vehicle (UV) specialists to control heterogeneous groups of ground and aerial vehicles. This interface will be primarily targeted to the robotic sub-domain of localized disaster response to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive events. Vehicles under operator control may be tasked with the following sub-goals:

• Collecting hazardous materials (hazmat) samples
• Collecting evidence to identify the responsible parties
• Searching for secondary devices
• Exploration and mapping
• Assisting co-located human team members

The four types of search that the operator may be tasked to perform are (Adams et al., 2007):

• Hasty Search: Rapidly checking areas and directions that offer the highest probability of detecting the object of the search
• Constraining Search: Attempting to locate clues that limit the search area; also termed "perimeter search"
• High Probability Region Search: Results from hasty and constraining searches are often used to inform search in high probability regions
• Exhaustive Search: Systematic coverage of the entire area using appropriate search patterns

Activities not directly targeted by this project include:

• Natural disasters
• Search and rescue

Expected Benefits

Goals of this project consist of evaluating previous research efforts in this domain and building on them to generate an interface capable of multi-vehicle system control. Primarily a research project, work on this project will further expanded knowledge of the subject.

User Definition

Research from the client suggests that in a hazardous materials response, there is a hierarchy of interested parties with different informational needs. There are individuals directly in the contaminated area (the hot zone) and managerial staff at remote locations. The specific users this project targets are UV specialists stationed at the border in the cold zone. A UV specialist has the following characteristics:

• Relatively high level of proficiency with graphical interfaces
• Operational knowledge of disaster response procedures
• Training in the operation of unmanned vehicles

Project Assumptions

• Maps of the search area are likely available
• The number of robotic agents tasked to the interface will be ten or less
• Accurate positioning information of robots is available (within a few feet)

Preliminary Constraints

• Include simulation data from USAR-Sim
• Ten or less agents
• Map data available
• Accurate positioning data available (within a few feet)

Existing Systems

Two previous projects have been completed in this vein of research by this group:

• Humphrey, C. M., Henk, C., Sewell, G., Williams, B. W., & Adams, J. A. (2007). Assessing the Scalability of a Multiple Robot Interface. Proceedings of the 2^nd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robotic Interaction.
  • http://www.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/~adamsja/Papers/HRI2007.pdf
• Pitman, A. M., Humphrey, C. M., & Adams, J. A. (2007). A Picture-in-Picture Interface for a Multiple Robot System.

Calendar

Webpage URL

References

1. Adams, J. A., Cooper, J, L., Goodrich, M. A., Humphrey, C. M., Quigley, M. Buss, B. G., & Morse, B. S. (2007). Camera-Equipped Mini UAVs for Wilderness Search Support: Task Analysis and Lessons from Field Trials. Technical report, BYUCHMI 2007-1.