From Teleoperation to Autonomy: “Autonomizing” Non-Autonomous Robots

Many complex tasks (search and rescue, explosive ordinance disposal, and more) that eventually will be performed by autonomous robots are still performed by human operators via teleoperation. Since the requirements of teleoperation are different from those of autonomous operation, design decisions of teleoperation platforms can make it difficult to convert such platforms for autonomous use. In this paper, we discuss the differences and the potential difficulties involved in this conversion, as well as strategies for overcoming them. And we demonstrate these strategies by “autonomizing” a fully teleoperated robot designed for tasks such as bomb disposal, using an autonomous architecture that has the requisite capabilities.