. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Oct 25.

Published in final edited form as: J Hum Robot Interact. 2014 Jul;3(2):74–99. doi: 10.5898/JHRI.3.2.Beer

Table 4.

Proposed Taxonomy of Levels of Robot Autonomy for HRI

Level of Robot Autonomy (LORA)	Function Allocation			Description	Examples from Literature
Level of Robot Autonomy (LORA)	Sense	Plan	Act	Description	Examples from Literature
1. Manual Teleoperation	H	H	H	The human performs all aspects of task including sensing the environment and monitoring the system, generating plans/options/goals, and implementation.	“Manual Teleoperation” Milgram, 1995 “Tele Mode” Baker & Yanco, 2004; Bruemmer et al., 2005; Desai & Yanco, 2005

2. Action Support	H/R	H	H/R	The robot assists the human with action implementation. However, sensing and planning is allocated to the human. For example, a human may teleoperate a robot, but the human may choose to prompt the robot to assist with some aspects of a task (e.g., gripping objects).	“Action Support” Kaber et al., 2000

3. Assisted Teleoperation	H/R	H	H/R	The human assist with all aspects of the task. However, the robot senses the environment and chooses to intervene with task. For example, if the user navigates the robot too close to an obstacle, the robot will automatically steer to avoid collision.	“Assisted Teleoperation” Takayama et al., 2011 “Safe Mode” Baker & Yanco, 2004; Bruemmer et al., 2005; Desai & Yanco, 2005

4. Batch Processing	H/R	H	R	Both the human and robot monitor/sense the environment. The human, however, determines the goals and plans of the task. The robot then implements task.	“Batch Processing” Kaber et al., 2000

5. Decision Support	H/R	H/R	R	Both the human and robot sense the environment and generate a task plan. However, the human chooses the task plan and commands robot to implement action.	“Decision Support” Kaber et al., 2000

6. Shared Control with Human Initiative	H/R	H/R	R	The robot autonomously senses the environment, develops plans/goals, and implements actions. However, the human monitors the robot’s progress, and may intervene and influence the robot with new goals/plans if the robot is having difficulty.	“Shared Mode” Baker & Yanco, 2004; Bruemmer et al., 2005; Desai & Yanco, 2005 “Mixed Initiative” Sellner et al., 2006 “Control Sharing” Tarn et al., 1995

7. Shared Control with Robot Initiative	H/R	H/R	R	Robot performs all aspects of the task (sense, plan, act). If the robot encounters difficulty, it can prompt the human for assistance in setting new goals/plans.	“System-Initiative” Sellner et al., 2006 “Fixed-Subtask Mixed-Initiative” Hearst, 1999

8. Supervisory Control	H/R	R	R	Robot performs all aspects of task, but the human continuously monitors the robot. The human has over-ride capability and may set a new goal/plan. In this case the autonomy would shift to shared control or decision support.	“Supervisory Control” Kaber et al., 2000

9. Executive Control	R	(H)/R	R	The human may give an abstract high level goal (e.g., navigate in environment to specified location). The robot autonomously senses environment, sets plan, and implements action.	“Seamless Autonomy” Few et al., 2008 “Autonomous mode” Baker & Yanco, 2004; Bruemmer et al., 2005; Desai & Yanco, 2005

10. Full Autonomy	R	R	R	Robot performs all aspects of a task autonomously without human intervening with sensing, planning, or implementing action.

Note: H = Human, R = Robot