A Robot-Machine Interface for full-functionality automation using a humanoid

Humanoid robots can be a highly desirable substitute for humans when it performs various tasks using tools and equipment designed for humans. One of such possible applications is controlling a vehicle. A humanoid robot can sit in the pilot's seat and command the vehicle using the control columns or steering wheels, pedals, switches, levers, and dials. In this paper, we propose a framework of automating a vehicle, an airplane in particular, with a humanoid. In order to perform various tasks of flying an unmodified airplane, the robot needs to perform three levels of tasks - recognition, decision, and action. The robot should collect information of the vehicle by using its own sensors and from various instruments in the cockpit, in addition to possible data link, a privilege of a robot. The robot then decides how to operate the flight control equipment in order to follow a given flight plan. Finally, it directly manipulates the control input equipment by computing the kinematic variables in the presence of various constraints from the surroundings. In order to validate the proposed framework, a piloting robot system is developed using a small low-cost humanoid and a flight simulation equipment designed for humans. The robot showed adequate performance to fly the airplane from cold start to landing to a stop on the runway.