The STRANDS Project: Long-Term Autonomy in Everyday Environments

TL;DR

The STRANDS project demonstrates long-term autonomous operation of service robots in real environments, integrating AI and robotics to perform extended tasks and improve over time.

Contribution

This work presents a comprehensive approach for enabling long-term autonomy in service robots through deployment in real-world environments.

Findings

Robots operated for a total of 104 days autonomously.

Robots covered 116 km during deployments.

System improved performance over long-term operation.

Abstract

Thanks to the efforts of the robotics and autonomous systems community, robots are becoming ever more capable. There is also an increasing demand from end-users for autonomous service robots that can operate in real environments for extended periods. In the STRANDS project we are tackling this demand head-on by integrating state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and robotics research into mobile service robots, and deploying these systems for long-term installations in security and care environments. Over four deployments, our robots have been operational for a combined duration of 104 days autonomously performing end-user defined tasks, covering 116km in the process. In this article we describe the approach we have used to enable long-term autonomous operation in everyday environments, and how our robots are able to use their long run times to improve their own performance.