AUTONOMOUS PLATFORMS

The same technologies that have enabled SoarTech to bring human level intelligence and natural, multi-modal interfaces to simulation systems are now being used to build intelligent, autonomous, and collaborative robotic systems. Robotic intelligence frees humans from being tethered to a robot – and makes the robot a true teammate instead of a piece of equipment.

CONTROL FOR AUTONOMOUS PLATFORMS

Like Human Behavior Models in simulation, our intelligent agents are the mechanism for decision-oriented control. Decision-oriented control is capable of working with single or multiple platforms for task and mission planning and can learn behaviors from demonstration.

HUMAN-ROBOT INTERFACES

Dialogue-based, mixed-initiative interaction control systems and speech interfaces such as our Universal Controller make the job of tasking a robot or autonomous vehicle as natural as possible through the integration of speech, sketch, voice, and haptics to create an efficient Human-Robot Interface under diverse operational situations. Our interfaces are designed to be platform independent and meet industry standards.

SITUATION AWARENESS

Intelligent display of information on Operator Control Units enables the human and machine to share situation awareness necessary for team decision making. A management-by-exception control scheme allows operators to spend less time interacting with the system and more time doing other important tasks.

TRUSTWORTHY AUTONOMY

Providing cyber-resilient, fail-safe autonomous systems increases trustworthiness. Autonomous platforms have intrinsic challenges unique from systems where humans have more control. We architect systems to support meta-level reasoning, bounding autonomy within tactical-level behavioral constraints, detecting and reacting to potential problems, and alerting users through explanation-based reasoning.

CASE STUDY

Smart Interaction Device (SID)

Our Smart Interaction Device, or SID, enables natural HRI for interaction between a human and machine. SID uses small, ultra-portable devices such as tablets or smartphones that include an intelligent user interface to help raise the level of interaction between the human and machine to the level of supervisory control. Through high-level, multi-modal interaction between a user and associated machines, SID leverages the automation provided on the platform, but also adds intelligence in the user interface itself that helps to translate high-level user commands into machine-readable commands. SID also helps maintain user situational awareness by providing feedback to the user, either by request or based on expected protocols. The result is that the user can spend less time minding the machines they are working with and more time paying attention to his or her surroundings, working on other tasks, or managing multiple vehicles.