Ontology design for task allocation and management in urban search and rescue missions

Task allocation and management is crucial for human-robot collaboration in Urban Search And Rescue response efforts. The job of a mission team leader in managing tasks becomes complicated when adding multiple and different types of robots to the team. Therefore, to effectively accomplish mission objectives, shared situation awareness and task management support are essential. In this paper, we design and evaluate an ontology which provides a common vocabulary between team members, both humans and robots. The ontology is used for facilitating data sharing and mission execution, and providing the required automated task management support. Relevant domain entities, tasks, and their relationships are modeled in an ontology based on vocabulary commonly used by firemen, and a user interface is designed to provide task tracking and monitoring. The ontology design and interface are deployed in a search and rescue system and its use is evaluated by firemen in a task allocation and management scenario. Results provide support that the proposed ontology (1) facilitates information sharing during missions; (2) assists the team leader in task allocation and management; and (3) provides automated support for managing an Urban Search and Rescue mission.