BOSTON ENGINEERING CORPORATION — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: Boston Engineering"s Advanced Systems Group and Dr. Holly Yanco"s team at the Un

Description

Boston Engineering"s Advanced Systems Group and Dr. Holly Yanco"s team at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell propose to develop a design science for robot operator interfaces and demonstrate its application through existing design tools and prototype systems that reduce operator training time, maximize the ability of an operator - robot team to maintain synchronization, and provide a baseline for the future execution of unmanned systems tasks at a normal military operational tempo. This science, named R-LUCID, leverages the fact that technology is providing sensors that can enable low-level autonomy but converts the art of interface design to a science by investigating and developing the metrics, techniques, and scenario-based approaches required. Additionally, this effort provides a unique method for generating a control ontology based on how humans are designed to perceive and use interface cues such that robot architecture could be developed to match, reducing the latencies and other operational tempo-slowing components of user and robot interaction further and further. This team is uniquely capable of performing this effort in a comprehensive and time-effective manner with valuable outputs available at stages of development considered to be far earlier than competitive efforts.