Towards Industrial Autonomy: A Four-Dimensional Level of Autonomy (LoA) Framework

Industrial systems are transitioning towards greener, digital, and autonomous solutions, resulting in significant changes to their design and operation. This path to full autonomy faces several challenges, especially in integrating modern and legacy equipment at industrial sites, causing incompatible communication standards and diverse software systems. Each site presents unique requirements, necessitating close cooperation between technology providers and site operators.
Site operators need a thorough understanding of the opportunities, limitations, and safety risks associated with increased autonomy. Additionally, the physical design of sites must be suitable for the integration of autonomous machines, alongside potential combinations of autonomous, semi-autonomous, and manual equipment. Communication challenges can arise when certain machines rely on manual operation, complicating overall system's functionality. Beyond technical hurdles, increased autonomy requires adjustments in business-wide operations, including safety management, logistics, product and document management, fleet management, and the refinement of operator skillsets.
To address these complexities, we propose a four-dimensional Level of Autonomy (LoA) framework that helps in identifying and prioritizing key areas for enhancing autonomy. Unlike existing models that focus solely on system-wide or individual machine autonomy, our LoA framework integrates dimensions for machine driving, machine manipulation, system operation, and system mission. The operational dimension considers the orchestration of autonomous driving and manipulation of both individual machines and entire fleets, while the mission dimension emphasizes the management of multiple connected mixed fleets working towards a unified system goal.
Dimensions of autonomy are crucial because they highlight areas where human involvement is necessary and provide insights into strategies needed to enhance autonomy or assess the current level of system autonomy. A comprehensive LoA framework benefits stakeholders, including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), suppliers, and system integrators, by providing a unified approach for implementing autonomous systems.

Keywords: Level of autonomy, Automation, Framework, Manual operation, Autonomous operation, Mixed fleets, Industrial autonomy.