Developing human useable autonomous mobile robots

The mechatronics group of the University of Waikato has constructed a fleet of autonomous mobile robots. Each of these robots is dedicated to a particular terrain, such as smooth indoor surfaces, underwater environments, farms, forests etc. Critical to the successful application of these robots are a reliable navigation and control structure, and human acceptance. This paper details the development of this robotic fleet emphasizing the generic features common to their software and hardware architectures. Additionally, the results of development undertaken with a motion picture animatronics company are presented, work that has lead to the radical physical and software redesigns of our robots in order to facilitate human acceptance.