Developing Principles for Effective Human Collaboration with Free-Flying Robots

Aerial robots hold great promise in supporting human activities during space missions and terrestrial operations. For example, free-flying robots may automate environmental data collection, serve as maneuverable remote monitoring platforms, and effectively explore and map new environments. Such activities will depend on seamless integration of human-robot systems. The objective of this research is to advance fundamental knowledge of human-robot interaction (HRI) principles for aerial robots by developing new methods for communicating robot status at a glance as well as robot interface technologies that support both proximal and distal operation. This work will design a signaling module that maps robot communicative goals to signaling mechanisms, which can be used in robot software architectures in a manner analogous to common robot motion planning modules. Additionally, this work will examine how robot interface design requirements differ for crew and ground control and develop techniques for scaling control systems across interaction distances.

This research will advance fundamental knowledge of human-robot interaction (HRI) principles for aerial robots by developing new methods for communicating robot status at a glance as well as robot interface technologies that support both proximal and distal operation.

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