Soldier Universal Robot Controller

With the anticipated deployment of technologies developed under programs like Future Force Warrior and Future Combat Systems, there is a growing need for a common method for human-robot interaction. This is particularly true for dismounted infantry, since they are often in situations where small, lightweight, easy to use interfaces are a necessity rather than a luxury. There are a growing number of small and large unmanned systems which are either already fielded, or close to being fielded. To date, these include vehicles such as the iRobot PackBot, the Foster-Miller TALON, Automatika’s DragonRunner, RONS, BombBot, and the FCS vehicles (MULE, ARV, SUGV), each of which is controlled by a proprietary OCU, complicating logistics and training efforts. To address this problem, we are proposing an 18 month effort to build, integrate, test and demonstrate a Soldier Universal Robot Controller (SURC) to enable seamless integration between a soldier and multiple heterogeneous robots. The SURC will make use of multi-modal hardware for input and output and have a multi-tiered interface model based on robot capabilities and mission requirements; and it will use terminology familiar to the soldier (as taken from Army Field Manuals) to minimize training time, costs and cognitive burden. A key component of this effort is development of an extensible software architecture for easy extension and modification of SURC.