Interacting Random Trajectories: a Discussion.
Peter Trautman · arXiv (Cornell University) · 2016
Shared control fuses operator inputs and autonomy inputs into a single command. However, if environmental or operator predictions are multimodal, state of the art approaches are suboptimal with respect to safety, efficiency, and operator-autonomy agreement: even under mildly challenging conditions, existing approaches can fuse two safe inputs into an \emph{unsafe} shared control. Multimodal conditions are common to many real world applications, such as search and rescue robots navigating disaster zones, teleoperated robots facing communication degradation, and assistive driving technologies. In~\cite{trautman-smc-2015}, we introduced a novel approach called \emph{interacting random trajectories} (IRT) that simultaneously optimizes autonomy objectives (e.g., safety and efficiency) and operator-autonomy agreement under multimodal conditions; this optimality prevents such unsafe shared control. In this paper, we describe those results in more user friendly language by using illustrations and text.