Human-in-the-Loop Teleoperation Modes for Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems

Abstract

In all future scenarios of fully autonomous ground or air vehicle networks, human intervention is expected to take place in the form of remote immediate involvement/assistance. The use of telemanipulation with various ``human-in-the-loop (HITL)'' schemes is anticipated to instil the necessary degree of trust in autonomous vehicles (AVs) while operating in a highly volatile environment with other vehicles and a multitude of obstacles. According to numerous research papers, autonomous uninhabited aerial vehicles (A-UAVs) will reach higher penetration levels in mixed air traffic in the coming years. However, there hasn't been enough research in the literature on efficient A-UAV management in real-world use cases with a lot of uncertainty. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by examining the telemanipulation schemes between two smart agents: human telemanipulators (HTMs) and A-UAVs. HITL telemanipulation described in this report can i) play a key role in enabling A-UAVs to instantly handle a multitude of uncertainties and ii) expedite the integration of A-UAVs into mixed air traffic.