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In order to apply mobile robots to a new range of applications, we require control architectures and interfaces that support symbiotic interaction. Remote deployment of mobile robots offers one of the most compelling opportunities to merge human intelligence with machine proficiency. This paper discusses a mixedinitiative control strategy based not on video, but on an abstracted, collaborative workspace-a 3-D, video-game representation constructed on-the-fly-that promotes situation-awareness and efficient tasking. The new interface requires orders of magnitude less bandwidth than teleoperation and permits transmission ranges of thousands of miles. Unlike video, which offers only a 1 st person, local environment perspective, the 3-D interface changes perspective to support changing levels of operator involvement and robot autonomy. The humanparticipant study presented evaluates the effectiveness of this interaction substrate on a remote exploration task. Results indicate that this new tool for interfacing humans and intelligent robots can reduce human error, support changing levels of human workload, promote human trust, and enable a spectrum of remote robotic applications which have never before been possible.

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This report presents the preliminary findings of a pilot study to reduce thefts from cars committed against insecure vehicles, using the behavioural insights or ‘nudge approach’. The recipients of the ‘nudges’ were potential victims of theft from insecure vehicles living in high rate areas for this crime, where a bespoke leaflet campaign was developed to nudge vehicle owners into thinking more carefully when leaving their vehicles unattended, particularly when left on their driveways overnight. Although somewhat tentative at this stage, the preliminary findings indicate that the percentage of thefts committed against insecure vehicles in the two treatment areas was reduced significantly when compared with the two control group areas where no nudge interventions were introduced. This demonstrates that if appropriate nudges (grounded in psychological theory) are coupled with and delivered by appropriate messengers, the prosocial behavioural change can be encouraged which can lead to a reduction in criminal behaviour and opportunities for crime.