Human integration into discrete event control systems is considered by utilising potential fields for control synthesis. Human integration into a control system is of importance in many situations, including those in which limited sensor information about the environment or the task is available. The framework presented allows the sharing of human commands with commands from an automated control system. Potential fields are being used as a tool to generate velocity commands from an autonomous task level controller as well as allowing the human to interact. The potential fields are also utilised to constrain human input such that human input error is minimised. The ideas presented here are supported by experiments.

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Discrete event systems are presented as a powerful framework for a large number of robot control tasks. This paper presents a general description of the discrete event modeling and control synthesis for robot manipulation. Additionally, methods for the effective monitoring of the process based on the detection and identification of discrete events are given. The effectiveness and versatility of the approach are demonstrated through a wide variety of experiments. Applications are demonstrated in assembly, on-line training of robots, advanced perception capabilities, human-robot shared control and the understanding of human manipulation skills.

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