Distributed multi-level supervision to effectively monitor the operations of a fleet of autonomous vehicles in agricultural tasks

User Experience Sensor for Man-Machine Interaction Modeled as an Analogy to the Tower of Hanoi

This paper presents a novel user experience optimization concept and method, named User Experience Sensor, applied within the Hybrid Intelligence System (HINT). The HINT system, defined as a combination of an extensive AI system and the possibility of attaching a human expert, is designed to be used by relational agents, which may have a physical form, such as a robot, a kiosk, be embodied in an avatar, or may also exist as only software. The proposed method focuses on automatic process evaluation as a common sensor for optimization of the user experience for every process stage and the indicator for human-expert automatic session activation. This functionality is realized by the User Experience Sensor, which constitutes one of main elements of the self-optimizing interaction system. The authors present the optimization mechanism of the HINT system as an analogy to the process of building a Tower of Hanoi. The proposed sensor evaluates the user experience and measures the user/employee efficiency at every stage of a given process, offering the user to choose other forms of information, interaction, or expert support. The designed HINT system is able to learn and self-optimize, making the entire process more intuitive and easy for each and every user individually. The HINT system with the proposed sensor, implemented in a window assembly facility, successfully reduced assembly time, increased employees’ satisfaction, and assembly quality. The proposed approach can be implemented in numerous man–machine interaction applications.

A Multi-Robot Sense-Act Approach to Lead to a Proper Acting in Environmental Incidents

Many environmental incidents affect large areas, often in rough terrain constrained by natural obstacles, which makes intervention difficult. New technologies, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, may help address this issue due to their suitability to reach and easily cover large areas. Thus, unmanned aerial vehicles may be used to inspect the terrain and make a first assessment of the affected areas; however, nowadays they do not have the capability to act. On the other hand, ground vehicles rely on enough power to perform the intervention but exhibit more mobility constraints. This paper proposes a multi-robot sense-act system, composed of aerial and ground vehicles. This combination allows performing autonomous tasks in large outdoor areas by integrating both types of platforms in a fully automated manner. Aerial units are used to easily obtain relevant data from the environment and ground units use this information to carry out interventions more efficiently. This paper describes the platforms and sensors required by this multi-robot sense-act system as well as proposes a software system to automatically handle the workflow for any generic environmental task. The proposed system has proved to be suitable to reduce the amount of herbicide applied in agricultural treatments. Although herbicides are very polluting, they are massively deployed on complete agricultural fields to remove weeds. Nevertheless, the amount of herbicide required for treatment is radically reduced when it is accurately applied on patches by the proposed multi-robot system. Thus, the aerial units were employed to scout the crop and build an accurate weed distribution map which was subsequently used to plan the task of the ground units. The whole workflow was executed in a fully autonomous way, without human intervention except when required by Spanish law due to safety reasons.

Merge Fuzzy Visual Servoing and GPS-Based Planning to Obtain a Proper Navigation Behavior for a Small Crop-Inspection Robot

The concept of precision agriculture, which proposes farming management adapted to crop variability, has emerged in recent years. To effectively implement precision agriculture, data must be gathered from the field in an automated manner at minimal cost. In this study, a small autonomous field inspection vehicle was developed to minimise the impact of the scouting on the crop and soil compaction. The proposed approach integrates a camera with a GPS receiver to obtain a set of basic behaviours required of an autonomous mobile robot to inspect a crop field with full coverage. A path planner considered the field contour and the crop type to determine the best inspection route. An image-processing method capable of extracting the central crop row under uncontrolled lighting conditions in real time from images acquired with a reflex camera positioned on the front of the robot was developed. Two fuzzy controllers were also designed and developed to achieve vision-guided navigation. A method for detecting the end of a crop row using camera-acquired images was developed. In addition, manoeuvres necessary for the robot to change rows were established. These manoeuvres enabled the robot to autonomously cover the entire crop by following a previously established plan and without stepping on the crop row, which is an essential behaviour for covering crops such as maize without damaging them.

An Analytic Model for the Success Rate of a Robotic Actuator System in Hitting Random Targets

Autonomous robotic systems are increasingly being used in a wide range of applications such as precision agriculture, medicine, and the military. These systems have common features which often includes an action by an "actuator" interacting with a target. While simulations and measurements exist for the success rate of hitting targets by some systems, there is a dearth of analytic models which can give insight into, and guidance on optimization, of new robotic systems. The present paper develops a simple model for estimation of the success rate for hitting random targets from a moving platform. The model has two main dimensionless parameters: the ratio of actuator spacing to target diameter; and the ratio of platform distance moved (between actuator "firings") to the target diameter. It is found that regions of parameter space having specified high success are described by simple equations, providing guidance on design. The role of a "cost function" is introduced which, when minimized, provides optimization of design, operating, and risk mitigation costs.