Dr. Ariel Rosenfeld

Intelligent Agent Supporting Human-Multi-Robot Team Collaboration

Ariel Rosenfeld, Noa Agmon, Oleg Maksimov, Amos Azaria and Sarit Kraus; Intelligent Agent Supporting Human-Multi-Robot Team Collaboration, IJCAI 2015 [28% acceptance rate], (also presented in AAMAS workshop ARMS 2015 & BISFAI 2015).
The number of multi-robot systems deployed in field applications has risen dramatically over the years. Nevertheless, supervising and operating multiple robots at once is a difficult task for a single operator to execute. In this paper we propose a novel approach for utilizing advising automated agents when assisting an operator to better manage a team of multiple robots in complex environments. We introduce the Myopic Advice Optimization (MYAO) Problem and exemplify its implementation using an agent for the Search And Rescue (SAR) task. Our intelligent advising agent was evaluated through extensive field trials, with 44 non-expert human operators and 10 low-cost mobile robots, in simulation and physical deployment, and showed a significant improvement in both team performance and the operator’s satisfaction.