SBIR-STTR Award

Current robotic controllers place a great deal of emphasis on graphical control methods. While graphics and visualization are an important and critical method for controlling robotic assets, they are not sufficient in all cases. The ideal robotic controller would enable the soldier to interact with the robot in the same manner as he interacts with other subordinates, with there being no distinction between a robotic or human subordinate. While this goal requires a great deal of technology development both in controller design and in robotic autonomy, there is much that can be done to improve the state of the art in robot controllers using existing principles and technologies, to enable a more natural interaction between robot and soldier In this proposal, we present a plan to develop a Soldier Universal Robot Controller (SURC) to enable Seamless Integration between the soldier and a team of robots. The SURC will make use of multi-modal hardware (audio and visual) for input and output and a multi-tiered interface model based on robot capabilities and mission requirements; it will have cognitive aids to reduce operator workload and modulate the interface, and will use terminology familiar to the soldier (as taken from Army Field Manuals) to minimize training time, costs and cognitive burden; it will further reduce operator workload by making use of existing collaborative robotics technologies to share information between robots. Finally, there will be an embedded simulation capability for mission rehearsal and training

With the anticipated deployment of technologies developed under programs like Future Force Warrior and Future Combat Systems, there is a growing need for a common method for human-robot interaction. This is particularly true for dismounted infantry, since they are often in situations where small, lightweight, easy to use interfaces are a necessity rather than a luxury. There are a growing number of small and large unmanned systems which are either already fielded, or close to being fielded. To date, these include vehicles such as the iRobot PackBot, the Foster-Miller TALON, Automatika’s DragonRunner, RONS, BombBot, and the FCS vehicles (MULE, ARV, SUGV), each of which is controlled by a proprietary OCU, complicating logistics and training efforts. To address this problem, we are proposing an 18 month effort to build, integrate, test and demonstrate a Soldier Universal Robot Controller (SURC) to enable seamless integration between a soldier and multiple heterogeneous robots. The SURC will make use of multi-modal hardware for input and output and have a multi-tiered interface model based on robot capabilities and mission requirements; and it will use terminology familiar to the soldier (as taken from Army Field Manuals) to minimize training time, costs and cognitive burden. A key component of this effort is development of an extensible software architecture for easy extension and modification of SURC.

Keywords:
Soldier Universal Controller, Surc, Ugv, “dismounted Controller Device”, “universal Robot Controller”, Jaus, Xml, “heterogeneous Networks”