Toward a Science of Autonomy for Physical Systems

Abstract: Our lives have been immensely improved by decades of automation research -- we are more comfortable, more productive and safer than ever before. Just imagine a world where familiar automation technologies have failed. In that world, thermostats don't work -- you have to monitor your home heating system manually. Cruise control for your car doesn't exist. Every elevator has to have a human operator to hit the right floor, most manufactured products are assembled by hand, and you have to wash your own dishes. Who would willingly adopt that world -- the world of last century -- today? Physical systems -- elevators, cars, home appliances, manufacturing equipment -- were more troublesome, ore time consuming, less safe, and far less convenient. Now, suppose we put ourselves in the place someone 20 years in the future, a future of autonomous systems. A future where transportation is largely autonomous, more efficient, and far safer; a future where dangerous occupations like mining or disaster response are performed by autonomous systems supervised remotely by humans; a future where manufacturing and healthcare are twice as productive per person-hour by having smart monitoring and readily re-tasked autonomous physical agents; a future where the elderly and infirm have 24 hour in-home autonomous support for the basic activities, both physical and social, of daily life. In a future world where these capabilities are commonplace, why would someone come back to today's world where someone has to put their life at risk to do a menial job, we lose time to mindless activities that have no intrinsic value, or be consumed with worry that a loved one is at risk in their own home? In what follows, and in a series of associated essays, we expand on these ideas, and frame both the opportunities and challenges posed by autonomous physical systems.