Comparison of a map- vs. camera-based user interface in a multi-robot navigation task

Abstract

Many missions with semi-autonomous multi-robot systems rely on the basic function to autonomously navigate within an unknown operational area. For missions in hazardous environments the efficiency of a robot's autonomous navigation system in an unknown terrain is difficult to estimate. In the case of performance degradations the human operator as a supervisory controller has to intervene and interactively improve the system's quality of service. A study of a novel multi-robot user interface for effective operator intervention is presented. Therefore, a simulated semi-autonomous multi-robot system with three different user interface configurations as well as 1,2, or 4 robots was compared. Central to the study's task is that operators can improve system performance by careful monitoring and intelligent intervention. According to the results this is possible for single robot scenarios but not for the multi-robot settings.