Scaling effects in multi-robot control

Abstract

The present study investigates the effect of the number of controlled robots on performance of an urban search and rescue (USAR) task using a realistic simulation. Task performance increased in going from four to eight controlled robots but deteriorated in moving from eight to twelve. Workload increased monotonically with number of robots. Performance per robot decreased with increases in team size. Results are consistent with earlier studies suggesting a limit of between 8-12 robots for direct human control. This study demonstrates that these findings generalize to a more realistic setting and complex task.