Towards human control of robot swarms

Kolling, Andreas; Nunnally, Steven; Lewis, Michael

doi:10.1145/2157689.2157704

Cited by 72 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…To reach consensus, the robots vote using multi-hop communication and finally execute the order associated with the performed gesture. Kolling et al (2012) presented two approaches to control a swarm. The first approach is based on global communication: a human operator uses a central computer to select and control a subgroup of robots.…”

Section: Human-swarm Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Swarm robotics: a review from the swarm engineering perspective

et al. 2013

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Swarm robotics is an approach to collective robotics that takes inspiration from the self-organized behaviors of social animals. Through simple rules and local interactions, swarm robotics aims at designing robust, scalable, and flexible collective behaviors for the coordination of large numbers of robots. In this paper, we analyze the literature from the point of view of swarm engineering: we focus mainly on ideas and concepts that contribute to the advancement of swarm robotics as an engineering field and that could be relevant to tackle real-world applications. Swarm engineering is an emerging discipline that aims at defining systematic and well founded procedures for modeling, designing, realizing, verifying, validating, operating, and maintaining a swarm robotics system. We propose two taxonomies: in the first taxonomy, we classify works that deal with design and analysis methods; in the second taxonomy, we classify works according to the collective behavior studied. We conclude with a discussion of the current limits of swarm robotics as an engineering discipline and with suggestions for future research directions.

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Section: Human-swarm Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Swarm robotics: a review from the swarm engineering perspective

et al. 2013

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“…The authors note that it can be difficult to display such a large amount of data while ensuring that the user still has a clear understanding of what is going on in the swarm. Kolling et al [2] propose an approach based on so-called selection and beacon control. To select robots, the user draws a rectangular zone in a GUI.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Usability studies are largely absent from the existing body of research in HSI (with the exception of [2,3]). We believe that this is a major omission, and that both objective and subjective usability results should be an essential part of any HSI research.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gesturing at Subswarms: Towards Direct Human Control of Robot Swarms

Podevijn

O’Grady

Nashed

et al. 2014

Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems

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Abstract. The term human-swarm interaction (HSI) refers to the interaction between a human operator and a swarm of robots. In this paper, we investigate HSI in the context of a resource allocation and guidance scenario. We present a framework that enables direct communication between human beings and real robot swarms, without relying on a secondary display. We provide the user with a gesture-based interface that allows him to issue commands to the robots. In addition, we develop algorithms that allow robots receiving the commands to display appropriate feedback to the user. We evaluate our framework both in simulation and with real-world experiments. We conduct a summative usability study based on experiments in which participants must guide multiple subswarms to different task locations.

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“…By contrast, a human can also influence a swarm's behavior indirectly by changing features of the environment. This can be accomplished, for example, by an operator who sets up a beacon in the environment to influence how a swarm will move [7], [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shaping Couzin-Like Torus Swarms through Coordinated Mediation

Jung

Brown

Goodrich

2013

2013 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics

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Abstract-Human-swarm interaction methods often allow a human to influence a swarm through either leadership or predation. These methods of influence have two main limitations:(1) although leaders sustain influence over nominal agents for a long period of time, they tend to cause all collective structures to turn in to flocks (negating the benefit of other swarm formations) and (2) predators tend to cause collective structures to fragment. We introduce the use of mediators as a novel shared control method for human-swarm influence and use mediators to shape Couzin-like tori [1]. The mediator method uses special agents that operate from within the spatial center of a swarm. This approach allows a human operator to transform and move a dynamic torus formation while sustaining influence over the torus, avoiding fragmentation, and maintaining the torus' connectivity. The use of mediators allows a human to mold and adapt the torus' behavior and structure to a wide range of spatio-temporal tasks such as military protection and decontamination tasks.

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Towards human control of robot swarms

Cited by 72 publications

References 11 publications

Swarm robotics: a review from the swarm engineering perspective

Swarm robotics: a review from the swarm engineering perspective

Gesturing at Subswarms: Towards Direct Human Control of Robot Swarms

Shaping Couzin-Like Torus Swarms through Coordinated Mediation

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