Autonomous Versus Manual Control of a Pasture Sanitation Robot.

This work presents the collection and analysis of data from animal-robot interactions in two different control schemes. Cows (B. taurus) and horses (E. caballus) were introduced in pasture to a robot controlled either manually via teleoperation and autonomously via a costmap-based navigation algorithm. The robot maneuver at random, simulating a manure collection task, until all animals in the pasture lost vigilant attention to the robot. The time of initial loss of interest, interest over time, and time of ultimate loss of interest (10 consecutive seconds of non-vigilance) were recorded. The pasture sanitation robot was successful in manual and autonomous navigation of pastures. The robot was able to operate autonomously in pasture safely without changing qualitative response from the animals, as compared to manual methods. The deployment of autonomous control did not increase stress as a function of vigilance as compared to manual teleoperation. Both methods contribute to the development and evaluation of future pasture sanitation robots.