Attention and Communication: Decision Scenarios for Teleoperating Robots

The economics of robot manufacturing is driving us toward situations in which a single human operator will be expected to split attention across multiple semi-autonomous vehicles, and remotely intercede if necessary. We present an analysis of such situations, with the goal of creating decision aids. Toward this end, the concept of special regions is introduced. In one set of situations special regions designate areas that are dangerous, and require teleoperation. We show how to move through single route and multi-route situations, and prove the later problem NP-Complete. In another set of situations, special regions can be used to represent areas outside direct radio contact. We present a way to minimize communication distance and plan for interventions. We relate our findings to concepts of neglect time, interaction time, and fan-out. We discuss a measure of effective fan-out for transportation tasks, and present simulation results. The work has potential impact to those engaged in emergency response and search and rescue.