The role of operator style on mission energy requirements for tele-operated unmanned ground vehicles

This paper investigates the impact of tele-operation on energy consumption of a small unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). Using statistical response surface analyses, it is shown that factors such as velocity, stop-and-go operations, human operator delay and aggressiveness, and their interactions significantly increase the energy requirements in a typical mission. We investigate the effect of velocity deviation from the optimal drive cycle in terms of energy consumption and demonstrate that energy requirements can increase twofold when operating the vehicle at nonoptimal velocities. Finally, recommendations for improving the energy efficiency are proposed by targeting factors that affect the energy usage.