Haptic Shape-Based Management of Robot Teams in Cordon and Patrol

There is a growing need to develop effective interaction methods that enable a single operator to manage a team of multiple robots. This paper presents a novel approach that involves treating the team as a moldable volume, in which deformations of the volume correspond to changes in team shape. The team possesses a level of autonomy that allows the team to travel to and surround buildings of interest in a patrol and cordon scenario. During surround mode, the operator explores or manipulates the team shape to create desired formations around a building. A spacing interaction method also allows the operator to adjust how robots are spaced within the current shape. Separate haptic feedback is developed for each method to allow the operator to “feel” the shape or spacing manipulation. During travel mode, the operator chooses desired travel locations and receives feedback to help identify how and where the team travels. Results from a user study suggest that haptic feedback significantly improves operator performance in a reconnaissance task when task demand is higher, but may slightly increase operator workload. In the context of the experimental setup, these results suggest that haptic feedback may contribute to heads-up control of a team of autonomous robots. There were no significant differences in levels of situation awareness due to haptic feedback in this study.