Autonomous robots are capable of navigating on their own. Shared control approaches, however, allow humans to make some navigation decisions. This is typically executed either by overriding the human or the robot control at some specific situations. In this paper, we propose a method to allow cooperation between humans and robots at each point of any given trajectory so that both have some weight in the emergent behavior of the mobile robot. This is achieved by evaluating their efficiencies at each time instant and combining their commands into a single order. In order to achieve a seamless combination, this procedure is integrated into a bottom-up architecture via a reactive layer. We have tested the proposed method using a real robot and several volunteers, and results have been satisfactory both from a quantitative and qualitative point of view.

This paper presents a new CBR navigation scheme based on three behaviours: wall following, corridor following and door crossing. The system switches among CBR behaviours depending on a local grid built around the robot from sonar sensor readings. The main advantage of the proposed system is that it can easily adapt to any robot and environment, learning, both by training and by its own experience. The method has been successfully tested in real environments with a Pioneer robot equipped with 8 frontal sonar sensors.

Autonomous robots are capable of navigating on their own. In some cases, though, it is interesting to allow humans to influence navigation. Shared control is typically achieved either by giving control to the human or the robot at some specific situations. In this work, we propose a method to share control between humans and robots at each point of a given trajectory, so that both have weight in the resulting behavior of the mobile. This is achieved by estimating their respective local efficiencies at each time instant and combining their commands into a single order. In order to achieve a seamless combination, this procedure is integrated into a bottom-up architecture via a reactive layer. The system is meant to be used in wheelchair control for people with disabilities. Thus far, we have tested the proposed method using a Pioneer AT robot driven by several volunteers. Results have been satisfactory both from a quantitative and qualitative point of view.