A taxonomy for autonomy in industrial autonomous mobile robots including autonomous merchant ships

The concept of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) has gained much popularity in recent years, particularly in commercial settings where the name industrial autonomous mobile robot (IAMR) is proposed. In addition to automatic guided vehicles and automated mining trucks, IAMR also includes autonomous merchant ships. AMR is an old concept which was first introduced in the 1980s. Although the concept of AMRs is old and broadly used, there is still no common definition of autonomy when mobile robots are concerned. This paper will review some of the most known definitions and develop a taxonomy for autonomy in mobile autonomous robots. This will be used to compare the different definitions of robotic autonomy. This paper will mainly look at industrial autonomous mobile robots, i.e. systems that are designed to operate with a clear commercial objective in mind and which are normally supported by a remote control centre. This means that the robot is not fully autonomous, but to varying degrees dependent on humans in some control and monitoring functions.