Evaluation of multi-robot control and monitoring performance

Designing a human-machine interface for a mobile semi-autonomous multi-robot system is a challenging task. The requirements range from operating in a real time environment, facilitating asynchronous command execution to supporting the operator in dividing his monitoring and control resources among multiple robots. The experiment presented in this paper is the first in our effort to develop a human-multi-robot system. Its aim is to provide empirical data enabling us to measure the effectiveness of the interface in order to support design decisions as the development is progressing. Additional data is gathered to explore how effective operators can manage multiple independently acting mobile robots simultaneously. The central task of this simulation based experiment is to navigate the robots to various "inspection points" to perform an "inspection". This task is performed by a single operator with 2, 4, and 8 robots in two different environments.