One will have to read more of the story but what I can understand is that since the robots are autonomous it will work hard and follow humand comands. When a human is disipline it means that person does what he had plan to do no matter if circumstances change. For exaple for a person that goes to gym everyday, one can say he or she is very disciplined. Could also be refering to the disciple of a marine archaeologist. The study of... depending of what the article is referring to. It's in the context.