What Is Shared Control?

Definitions
What is Shared Control?

What is Shared Control?

Shared control is a term used to describe a collaborative approach where control or decision-making is distributed between humans and autonomous systems such as robots or machines. It allows both human operators and automated systems to work together to achieve a common goal, combining the strengths of human intuition and creativity with the precision and efficiency of machine processing.

Key Takeaways:

  • Shared control involves a collaborative approach where humans and autonomous systems share decision-making.
  • It combines the strengths of human intuition and creativity with the precision and efficiency of automated systems.

Shared control finds application in various fields, including but not limited to robotics, industrial automation, and self-driving vehicles. The aim is to optimize the interaction between humans and automation, leveraging the complementary abilities of both parties to improve performance, safety, and overall productivity. By allowing humans to maintain a level of control over the system, shared control ensures that important decisions are still made by individuals with the necessary expertise and contextual understanding.

In shared control scenarios, the human operator typically retains high-level control, setting goals and providing high-level guidance to the automated system. The autonomous system, on the other hand, handles low-level control tasks, such as trajectory planning, obstacle avoidance, or motion execution. This way, the human operator can focus on more complex decision-making tasks while relying on the automated system to handle repetitive or precise actions.

Shared control can also improve the safety of operations, as humans act as a critical backup in case of system failures or unexpected events. Additionally, by involving human operators in the decision-making process, shared control can help build trust and acceptance towards autonomous systems, which is crucial for their successful integration into society.

Key Takeaways:

  • Shared control optimizes the interaction between humans and automated systems in various fields.
  • It allows humans to maintain high-level control while automated systems handle low-level tasks.

In summary, shared control is a collaborative approach that combines the strengths of humans and autonomous systems. By sharing decision-making and control, it enables a more efficient and effective interaction between humans and machines. It finds application in a wide range of domains and holds the potential to revolutionize industries by harnessing the power of both human expertise and automation.