1. Static
2. Flat, homogenous surface
3. Common Indoor surface
4. Engineered Environment
5. Controlled Environment
6. ADA Indoor
7. Unrestricted Indoor
8. Unrestricted Outdoor (Anthromobility)
9. Unlimited
10. Universal

Since "robot" has evolved to mean just about everything from toys to industrial welders, we need to define exactly what an autonomous mobile service robot means. These are the main criteria for evaluating the functionality, Mobility, Fault Tolerance, and User Interace, Environmental Interface, and Onboard Intelligence. Detailed ratings are summarized by general categories..

Mobility

The orange robots in the background must be contained in a safety zone while the autonomous mobile robot is free to roam (although the young man in the stroller is more interested in the "big iron".

1. Teleoperated
2. < 1 min
3. < 1 Hour
4. < 8 Hours
5. < 1 Day
6. < 1 Week
7. < 1 Month
8. < 3 Months
9. < 6 Months
10. < 1 Year
11. < 18 Months
12. < 2 Years
13. < 3 Years
14. < 10 Years
15. < 25 years
16. > 25 Years

Avg. Time Between Rescues (ATBR)

1. Wired Teleoperated
2. Wireless Teleoperated
3. Programmed - Fixed
4. Programmed - Adaptive
5. Automatic Scheduled
6. Automatic Sensor Triggered
7. Button / LED
8. Touch Screen / LCD
9. Voice Synthesis / Recognition
10. Intuition / Inference

User Interface

1. None - Teleoperated
2. Shared - external decision making
3. Self Contained Fixed
4. Self Contained Adaptive
5. Self Organizing
6. Creative - Fixed
7. Creative - Adaptive
8. Self Assigned
9. Sentinent
10. Hyper-sentinent

Onboard Intelligence

1. None
2. Hardwired (when docked)
3. Wireless Proprietary
4. Wireless Universal
5. Manipulator Limited
6. Manipulator Unlimited
7. Tool Use
8. Prehensile
9. Hyper-anthro

Environmental Interface

Alpha - continuous control from outside operator.

Beta - semi-autonomous operation. Some functions are done by on-board decision making. Reacting to sensors or coordinated motor control upon single external command.

Gamma - all decisions are made onboard once configured from an external controller. IF-THEN or state machine programming for all possible conditions with a default or OTHERWISE state.

Delta - adds adaptive inference to the Gamma's default state. In the case of autonomous navigation, the ability to infer a route based on map data not preplanned alternate routes.

Epsilon - complete mobility within unrestricted indoor envronments. Direct human interaction without controller.

D 5 / h 7 3

Mobility

ATBR

User Interface

Intelligence

Enviro Interface

General Mobile Robot Categories

Typical Delta 5 characteristics