TeamRob - Teams of Robots Working for and with Humans

TeamRob addresses the following core question: How to realize teams of intelligent robots that are capable of working for and with humans? Working for humans means making it possible to train autonomous robots as easily as humans, eliminating the need for task-specific programming effort. When successfully deployed, robots should be able to train new robots, as we would expect human workers to be able to do. Working with humans means enabling robots and humans to cooperate in the same or overlapping work spaces, on the same or similar tasks. This requires not only comparable competence to humans in carrying out tasks, but also the ability to fluidly cooperate with each other and with humans, to understand the intentions of human co-workers, and, vice-versa, making robot intentions and behaviors legible to humans.

We address the core question via four sub-projects: Instructing robots, Skill transfer among robots, Mixed human-robot teams, and Intention understanding and communication. We propose a systematic plan for combining the results of the sub-projects, first pair-wise, then globally. Our research is anchored in the future needs of the industry, of which four prominent actors are represented in the project, namely, Scania, Volvo Construction Equipment, Epiroc, and Volvo Group Truck Operations.