Human control for cooperating robot teams

Human control of multiple robots has been characterized by the average demand of single robots on human attention or the distribution of demands from multiple robots. When robots are allowed to cooperate autonomously, however, demands on the operator should be reduced by the amount previously required to coordinate their actions. The present experiment compares control of small robot teams in which cooperating robots explored autonomously, were controlled independently by an operator or through mixed initiative as a cooperating team. Mixed initiative teams found more victims and searched wider areas than either fully autonomous or manually controlled teams. Operators who switched attention between robots more frequently were found to perform better in both manual and mixed initiative conditions.