Course Objectives

1
Course Objectives

• Know what it takes to make a robust autonomous
  robot work
• Sense/Think/Act
• Understand the important, approaches, research
  issues and challenges in autonomous robotics.
• Know how to program an autonomous robot.

2
What Can Robots Be Used For?

• Manufacturing
• 3 Ds
• Dirty
• Dull
• Dangerous
• Space
• Satellites, probes, planetary landers, rovers
• Military
• Agriculture
• Construction
• Entertainment
• Consumer?

3
History of Intelligent Robotics

• 1940s
• First remote manipulators for hazardous
  substances
• 1950s
• Industrial manipulators reprogrammable and
  multi-functional mechanism designed to move
  materials, parts, tools
• Closed loop control

4
History Continued

• 1955 term AI coined
• 1960s manufacturing robots
• Automatic guided vehicles (AGVs)
• Precision, repeatability
• Emphasis on mechanical aspects
• 1970s
• Planetary landers
• Machine vision research expands
• 1980s
• Black factory
• First intelligent autonomous robots
• Shakey, Stanford Cart, etc

5
History Continued

• 1990s
• Symbolic AI/Robotics stalls
• Reactive/Behavior-based robotics emerges
• 2000s
• ?

6
Intelligent Robot

• Mechanical creature which can function
  autonomously
• Mechanical built, constructed
• Creature think of it as an entity with its own
  motivation, decision making processes
• Function autonomously can sense, act, maybe even
  reason doesnt just do the same thing over and
  over like automation

7
Intelligent Robotics

• Basic robot primitives
  Sense/Think/Act
• Three paradigms (architectures)
  
  
  
  - Hierarchical (Deliberative)
  
  Sense -gtPlan -gtAct
  - Reactive
  
  Sense -gt Act
  
  - Hybrid (Deliberative/Reactive)
  
  Plan -gt Sense -gt Act

8
Ways of Controlling a Robot

• RC-ing
• you control the robot
• you can view the robot and its relationship to
  the environment
• ex. radio controlled cars, bomb robots
• operator isnt removed from scene, not very safe
• teleoperation
• you control the robot
• you can only view the environment through the
  robots eyes
• dont have to figure out AI
• semi- or full autonomy
• you might control the robot sometimes
• you can only view the environment through the
  robots eyes
• ex. Sojouner with different modes
• human doesnt have to do everything

9
Teleoperation

• Human controls robot remotely
• Hazardous materials
• Search and rescue
• Some planetary rovers
• Considerations
• Feedback (video, tactile, smell?)
• User interfaces (cognitive fatigue, nausea)
• Time/distance

10
Components of a Telesystem(after Uttal 89)

• Local
• display
• Local control device
• Communication
• Remote
• sensor
• mobility
• effector
• power

11
Example
Remote
Local
12
Typical Run
13
Problems that You Saw

• no feedback, couldnt really tell that the robot
  was stuck but finally got free
• robot doesnt have proprioception or internal
  sensing to tell you what the flippers were doing.
  No crunching noises, no pose widget to show the
  flippers
• no localization, mapping-gt no idea how far
  traveled
• partial solution better instrumentation (but
  cant do dead reckoning well)
• operator doesnt have an external viewpoint to
  show itself relative to the environment
• solution two robots, one to spot the other
• communications dropout, even though 3 meters
  away
• lighting conditions went from dark to very bright
• hard for computer vision or human to adjust

14
DarkStar7 secondsDarkSpot

• 7 second communications lag (satellite relay)
• interruption lag on part of operator

15
Predator71 human to robot ration
Leos unofficial Predator page

• 4 people to control it (52-56 weeks of training)
• one for flying
• two for instruments
• one for landing/takeoff
• plus maintenance, sensor processing and routing
• lack of self-awareness in Kosovo, come along
  side in helicopter and shoot down

16
Teleop Problems

• cognitive fatigue
• communications dropout
• communications bandwidth
• communications lag
• too many people to run one robot

17
Telesystems Best Suited For

• the tasks are unstructured and not repetitive
• the task workspace cannot be engineered to permit
  the use of industrial manipulators
• key portions of the task require dexterous
  manipulation, especially hand-eye coordination,
  but not continuously
• key portions of the task require object
  recognition or situational awareness
• the needs of the display technology do not exceed
  the limitations of the communication link
  (bandwidth, time delays)
• the availability of trained personnel is not an
  issue

18
Teleop Solutions

• Telepresence
• improves human control, reduces simulator
  sickness and cognitive fatigue by providing
  sensory feedback to the point that teleoperator
  feels they are present in robots environment
• Semi-autonomous
• Supervisory Control
• human is involved, but routine or safe portions
  of the task are handled autonomously by the robot
• Shared Control
• human initiates action, interacts with remote by
  adding perceptual inputs or feedback, and
  interrupts execution as needed
• Traded Control
• human initiates action, does not interact
• Mixed Initiative (Guarded Control)
• robot doesnt let the operator injure the robot
  (without override)
• whoever figures it out first

19
Collaborative Teleoperation
1
3
mpg June 2, 2000 SRDR Miami Beach view from
Inuktun as it falls
mpg June 2, 2000 SRDR Miami Beach view from
Inuktun from hoisted position
2

• Urban is stuck, Inuktun cant help from current
  perspective
• Driven off 3rd floor
• Hoisted to 2nd floor by tether
• Has better view, changing configuration rocking
  extend view

still June 2, 2000 SRDR Miami Beach
20
2000 AAAI Mobile Robot

• 2 robots helping each other reduced collision
  errors, sped up time navigating confined space,
  righting

21
ExampleMixed-Initiative Collab. Teleop

• 9/2000 DARPA Tactical Mobile Robots demonstration
• Robot used an intelligent assistant agent to look
  for signs of snipers hiding in urban rubble
• motion
• skin color
• difference in color
• thermal (IR camera)
• Human navigated mother robot using viewpoint of
  2nd robot (not in picture)
• Once deposited the human moved the daughter
  robot, and either saw a sniper or was alerted by
  the agent

22
AI provides the other stuff

• knowledge representation
• understanding natural langugage
• learning
• planning and problem solving
• inference
• search
• vision

23
Summary

• Teleoperation arose as an intermediate solution
  to autonomy, but it has a number of
  problemscognitive fatigue, high comms bandwidth,
  short delays, and manyone human to robot ratios.
• Telepresence tries to reduce cognitive fatigue
  through enhanced immersive environments
• Semi-autonomy tries to reduce fatigue, bandwidth
  by delegating portions of the task to robot