The Variable Autonomy for Robot Controls project examines the notion of “Levels of Autonomy” to allow shared control between the human and robot at a level appropriate for the given task. The distribution of control between operator and robot can be varied in discrete steps from teleoperation to autonomous. A second thrust of the project examines the problem of exploration/ reconnaissance/ characterization of rugged, unstructured environments with a robot system. The research is creating a new methodology of exploration that allows the robot to consider many metrics of information during the reconnaissance, enabling the robot to perform more complex explorations than simply mapping terrain. To be effective in practice, the exploration methodology must be capable of operating in concert with a remote human operator. Therefore, an active part of our research is inventing a new robot software architecture that allows the exploration methodology to be integrated with the “Levels of Autonomy” control scheme.
The project has implemented a Levels of Autonomy control scheme on the GOAT robot. GOAT (Goes Over All Terrain) is a medium scale robot which incorporates a novel configuration which puts the drive wheels on the ends of actuated arms. This allows GOAT to adjust body height and posture and combines the benefits of legged locomotion, including superior terrainability, with the ease of wheeled driving. The GOAT robot uses a laser scanner to map the environment and wheel odometry and a fiber optic gyro to estimate its position in the world. With the Levels of Autonomy control software, GOAT is capable of conducting indoor and outdoor reconnaissance, search and rescue and environmental characterization missions.