The role of human-automation consensus in multiple unmanned vehicle scheduling.
OBJECTIVE
This study examined the impact of increasing automation replanning rates on operator performance and workload when supervising a decentralized network of heterogeneous unmanned vehicles.


BACKGROUND
Futuristic unmanned vehicles systems will invert the operator-to-vehicle ratio so that one operator can control multiple dissimilar vehicles connected through a decentralized network. Significant human-automation collaboration will be needed because of automation brittleness, but such collaboration could cause high workload.


METHODS
Three increasing levels of replanning were tested on an existing multiple unmanned vehicle simulation environment that leverages decentralized algorithms for vehicle routing and task allocation in conjunction with human supervision.


RESULTS
Rapid replanning can cause high operator workload, ultimately resulting in poorer overall system performance. Poor performance was associated with a lack of operator consensus for when to accept the automation's suggested prompts for new plan consideration as well as negative attitudes toward unmanned aerial vehicles in general. Participants with video game experience tended to collaborate more with the automation, which resulted in better performance.


CONCLUSIONS
In decentralized unmanned vehicle networks, operators who ignore the automation's requests for new plan consideration and impose rapid replans both increase their own workload and reduce the ability of the vehicle network to operate at its maximum capacity.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings have implications for personnel selection and training for futuristic systems involving human collaboration with decentralized algorithms embedded in networks of autonomous systems.
Cummings
M L
ML
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, 77 Massachusetts Avenue 33-311, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. MissyC@mit.edu
Clare
Andrew
A
Hart
Christin
C
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001331:Automation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010560:Personnel Selection; D018531:Spacecraft; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D016526:Workload; D055815:Young Adult