mobile

The iRobot PackBot Tactical Mobile Robot has been effectively used in both Afghanistan and Iraq to perform reconnaissance and bomb disposal missions. These PackBot robots posses little or no on-board autonomy and are directly controlled by a remote human operator. The operator continuously monitors a live video and telemetry stream from the robot and continuously issues drive commands to the robot, much like a remote-controlled car. This is the standard mode of operation for today's fielded mobile robots. Future generations of mobile robot systems will include multiple, coordinated mobile robots-- each with increased on-board autonomy --enabling them to operate for extended periods of time outofcontact with any human operator. To address the needs of future systems, the Sentinel project team is developing technologies to enable a single operator to effectively control and coordinate multiple semi-autonomous robots through the development of intuitive user-interface methodologies. The developed user interface will: The Sentinel project will provide robust and effective control of systems that comprise multiple semi-autonomous mobile robots. This will increase the usefulness of mobile robot systems and enable their deployment in a broad range of operational scenarios.