Superintelligence in Robots · Part of The Humanoid Group

Levels of Robot Autonomy

Autonomous is used for robots that need constant supervision and for robots that work alone all night. Researchers have built scales to make the word precise. Here are three of them, and how to use them when you assess a robot.

By Arjun Rao · Updated October 2026

A ten-level scale for robots

In 2014 Jenay Beer, Arthur Fisk and Wendy Rogers published a framework for levels of robot autonomy in the Journal of Human-Robot Interaction. It runs from Manual Teleoperation through Action Support, Assisted Teleoperation, Batch Processing, Decision Support, Shared Control with Human Initiative, Shared Control with Robot Initiative, Supervisory Control and Executive Control, to Full Autonomy. At each level the framework states whether the human or the robot does the sensing, the planning and the acting, which turns a vague label into three specific questions.

Reading the middle levels

The middle of the scale is where the detail matters. At Batch Processing, the robot carries out the task, but the human still sets the goals and the plan. At Executive Control, the human gives only an abstract, high-level goal, such as going to a specified location, and the robot works out the rest. At Full Autonomy, the robot performs every part of the task without a person stepping in. One robot can sit at different levels for different tasks, so ask a maker to place each of your tasks on the scale.

Autonomy depends on the job and the place

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology took a broader view in its ALFUS framework for unmanned systems. It rates autonomy on three axes together: how complex the mission is, how complex the environment is, and how independent the system is from people. Needing no human input is not enough on its own. NIST's example is a washing machine, which runs without anyone but is not considered highly autonomous. Its reference scale runs from remote control at zero to performing on its own with near-zero human interaction at ten.

Borrowing from self-driving cars

The most familiar autonomy scale is SAE International's J3016 standard for road vehicles. It defines six levels of driving automation, from Level 0, no automation, to Level 5, full vehicle autonomy, and SAE describes it as the industry's most cited reference for automated vehicle capabilities. Robot makers sometimes borrow its language, so a robot may be described as Level 4 without saying which scale is meant. When that happens, ask which framework the maker is using and what the person still has to do at that level.

Sources and further reading

Toward a framework for levels of robot autonomy in human-robot interaction — Journal of Human-Robot Interaction (PubMed Central).
The ten-level taxonomy of robot autonomy, showing whether the human or the robot senses, plans and acts at each level.
Autonomy Levels for Unmanned Systems (ALFUS) Framework, Volume II — National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
NIST's framework rating autonomy by mission complexity, environmental complexity and independence from people.
SAE updates J3016 automated-driving graphic — SAE International.
SAE's own article on its six Levels of Driving Automation, the scale robot makers most often borrow.

Common questions

Is a fully autonomous robot always better?

Not necessarily. More autonomy means less supervision, but also fewer chances for a person to catch a mistake. Choose the level that suits each task's risks.

What level is a humanoid controlled remotely by a person?

If a person guides every movement, it sits at Manual Teleoperation, the lowest level on the Beer, Fisk and Rogers scale, however advanced the robot looks.

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