Publication Date
2019
Document Type
Dissertation
Committee Members
Kevin Bennett, Ph.D. (Advisor); Gary N. Burns, Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mark Draper, Ph.D. (Committee Member); Ion Juvina, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Abstract
Intelligent agent technologies are increasing the potential capacity for systems to behave more autonomously and are enabling more advanced human-autonomy teaming. For instance, future applications of human-autonomy teaming for the command and control of unmanned vehicles are now under consideration. This would involve a shift from a supervisory control approach to a teaming structure. These two approaches, instantiated as the task division and relationship between a human operator and a teammate, were empirically examined. The team’s composition, either human-human or human-autonomy, was also considered. A control station that supports single operator management of multiple simulated unmanned vehicles performing a base defense mission was employed along with a task management interface to support coordination and team cognition. A 2 x 2 x 2 mixed experimental design was used to evaluate operator-driven (supervisory control) and role-driven (teaming) team structures (within-subjects), across two levels of mission complexity (within-subjects), by both human-human teams and human-autonomy teams (between-subjects). Twenty-four participants completed four 30-minute trials, during which they worked with their teammate to complete a series of mission tasks. The role-driven team structure resulted in increased team performance on all measures with reduced workload. Team performance did not differ for Team Composition but the human-human teams resulted in a greater number of communications, and the teammate was rated higher in terms of trust and reliability. These results indicate that a teaming approach between human operators and autonomy can be beneficial, however, the interfaces need to support teammate interactions and provide transparency. Future research needs are also discussed.
Page Count
114
Department or Program
Department of Psychology
Year Degree Awarded
2019
Copyright
Copyright 2019, some rights reserved. My ETD may be copied and distributed only for non-commercial purposes and may not be modified. All use must give me credit as the original author.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
