Sentinel
Semi-Autonomous
Operations
Sentinel: A System for the Teleoperated Control of Small Mobile Robots
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Multiple UGV
Funding
provided by:
US Army Tank-Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC, Detroit Arsenal) http://tardec.army.mil
Project leader:
Dr. Scott Lenser, Senior Software Engineer, research_inquiries @irobot.com- The
Need - In current combat situations, individual soldiers drive individual unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to clear the route ahead and keep troops out of harm’s way. To take UGV systems to the next level and increase their capabilities and the range of missions they are able to perform, new technologies are needed in the area of multiple UGV command and control.
- The
Project - The Sentinel system will allow an operator to dynamically select and task groups of mobile robots to navigate to specified waypoints or along specified paths. Individual robots will combine GPS/INS position estimation with obstacle avoidance using stereo vision and LIDAR to effectively navigate autonomously.
The Sentinel system will include technologies for the control of multiple UGVs:
- Dynamic camera selection using multiple UGVs, including UGVs that each have multiple cameras
- Integrated teleoperated, semi-autonomous and fully-autonomous control of teams composed of multiple UGVs with variable autonomy levels based on current situational demands
- Variable-bandwidth communication with multiple UGVs, including digital video and audio
- Sensor-based UGV self-localization using GPS, INS and manual landmark recognition
- The
Goals -
- Develop new technologies that will allow a single operator to control the behavior of multiple UGVs, including the iRobot® PackBot® and iRobot-John Deere R-Gator.
- Extend the capabilities of teleoperated UGVs to meet the needs of the Objective Force in the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.
