Intelligent agent supporting human–multi-robot team collaboration

The number of multi-robot systems deployed in field applications has risen dramatically over the years. Nevertheless, supervising and operating multiple robots simultaneously is a difficult task for a single operator to execute. In this article we propose a novel approach for utilizing automated advising agents in assisting an operator to better manage a team of multiple robots in complex environments. We introduce an advice provision methodology and exemplify its implementation using automated advising agents in two real-world human–multi-robot team collaboration tasks: the Search And Rescue (SAR) and the warehouse operation tasks. Our intelligent advising agents were evaluated through extensive field trials, with over 150 human operators using both simulated and physical mobile robots, and showed a significant improvement in the team's performance.