Multiple-Robot Systems for USAR: Key Design Attributes and Deployment Issues

Abstract

The interaction between humans and robots is undergoing an evolution. Progress in this evolution means that humans are close to robustly deploying multiple robots. Urban search and rescue (USAR) can benefit greatly from such capability. The review shows that with state of the art artificial intelligence, robots can work autonomously but still require human supervision. It also shows that multiple robot deployment (MRD) is more economical, shortens mission durations, adds reliability as well as addresses missions impossible with one robot and payload constraints. By combining robot autonomy and human supervision, the benefits of MRD can be applied to USAR while at the same time minimizing human exposure to danger. This is achieved with a single-human multiple-robot system (SHMRS). However, designers of the SHMRS must consider key attributes such as the size, composition and organizational structure of the robot collective. Variations in these attributes also induce fluctuations in issues within SHMRS deployment such as robot communication and computational load as well as human cognitive workload and situation awareness (SA). Research is essential to determine how the attributes can be manipulated to mitigate these issues while meeting the requirements of the USAR mission.

A framework for area coverage and the visual search for victims in USAR with a mobile robot

“…The work on the area coverage and victim searching modules presented in this paper is part of an effort to develop a Single-Human Multiple-Robot System (SHMRS) for USAR described in [1] and [25]. Within the SHMRS, a multiple-robot collective is supervised by only a single human supervisor.…”

“…However, complexity and limited time are typical aspects of any type of search and rescue effort. Yet, it is in particular, urban search and rescue (USAR) that can benefit from the use of robots [1,2]. For instance, robots can gather information pertaining to victims, the condition of the environment and potential hazards [3,4].…”

“…The use of robot autonomy for the search task would allow the human supervisor to experience less cognitive workload than if no robot autonomy is used. This reduction in cognitive workload means an improvement on the quality of human supervision [1]. Furthermore, decreased cognitive workload levels translate to better awareness of the robot's situation, enhancing the supervisor's abilities for good decision making [6] as well as for diagnosing and handling robot anomalies or failures [20,21].…”

Single-human multiple-robot systems for urban search and rescue: Justifications, design and testing

“…The key design attributes and their expected interactions with the issues of SHMRS deployment are explained with greater detail in [32].…”

A Space Unrestricted Multi-Robot Combat Internet of Things System

“…Multi-robot Systems improve the performance where the existing systems deploy single robot [4][5][6][7]. The cornerstone of a multi-robot system is the use of a wide range communication.…”