Energy Industry Perspective on the Definition of Autonomy for Mobile Robots

Autonomy refers to a system that decides and performs actions motivated by some intended objectives, and those actions are justifiable by sound reasoning with respect to these objectives. Artificial intelligence (AI) is here intended as the technology that enables autonomy. Artificially intelligent autonomous robots are predicted to play an increasingly important role in the energy industry capability to address the society demand for energy. The development of such advanced systems needs to start with defining AI and autonomy for asset owners in the energy industry. In general, different applications will require different engineering definitions of AI and different levels of autonomy.