Human-Collaborative Schemes in the Motion Control of Single and Multiple Mobile Robots

Abstract

In this chapter we show and compare several representative examples of human-collaborative schemes in the control of mobile robots , with a particular emphasis on the aerial robot case. We first provide a simplified yet descriptive model of the robot and its interactions. We then use this model to define a taxonomy that highlights the main aspects of these collaboration schemes, such as the physical domain of the robots, the degree of autonomy , the force interaction with the operator (e.g., the unilateral versus the bilateral haptic shared control ), the near-operation versus the teleoperation, the contact-free versus the physically interactive situation, the use of onboard sensors, and the presence of a time horizon in the operator reference. We then specialize the proposed taxonomy to the multi-robot case in which we further distinguish the methods depending on their level of centralization, the presence of leader–follower schemes, of formation control schemes, the ability to preserve graph theoretical properties, and to perform cooperative physical interaction. The common denominator of all the examples presented in this chapter is the presence of a operator in the control loop. The main goal of the chapter is to introduce the reader and provide a first-level analysis on the several ways to effectively include human operators in the control of both single and multiple aerial robots and, by extension, of more generic mobile robots .