Assessing coordination overhead in control of robot teams

Conventional models of multirobot control assume independent robots and tasks. This allows an additive model in which the operator controls robots sequentially neglecting each until its performance deteriorates sufficiently to require new operator input. This paper presents a model and experiment intended to extend the neglect tolerance model to situations in which robots must cooperate to perform dependent tasks. In the experiment operators controlled 2 robot teams to perform a box pushing task under high cooperation demand (teleoperation), moderate demand (waypoint control/heterogeneous robots), and low demand (waypoint control/homogeneous robots) conditions. Measured demand and performance were consistent with the model´s predictions.