Multi-robot Scheduling and Path-Planning for Non-overlapping Operator Attention

Abstract

There is a growing need for robots to perform complex tasks autonomously. However, there remain certain tasks that cannot - or should not - be completely automated. While these tasks may require one or several operators, we can oftentimes schedule when an operator should assist. We build on our previous work to present a methodology for allocating operator attention across multiple robots while attempting to minimize the execution time of the robots involved. In this paper, we: 1) Analyze of the complexity of this problem, 2) Provide a scalable methodology for designing robot policies so that few operators can oversee many robots, 3) Describe a methodology for designing both policies and robot trajectories to permit operators to assist many robots, and 4) Present simulation and hardware experiments demonstrating our methodologies.