Coactive Design Why Interdependence Must Shape Autonomy Matthew Johnson Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition Pensacola, FL TU Delft December 15, 2010

Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition

Motivation

Problem Statement When designing sophisticated human-agent systems, what is the critical design feature of an agent or robot?

Problem Statement Autonomy When designing sophisticated human-agent systems, what is the critical design feature of an agent or robot?

What is Autonomy? Autonomy has two basic senses: self-sufficiency, the capability of an entity to take care of itself. self-directedness, or freedom from outside control.

Current Approaches Function Allocation (Fitts) –characterize the general strengths and weaknesses of humans and machines Supervisory Control (Sheridan) –a human oversees one or more autonomous systems, statically allocating tasks to them. Adjustable Autonomy (Dorais) –the ability of autonomous systems to operate with dynamically varying levels of independence Sliding Autonomy (Dias) –Same as adjustable autonomy Adaptive Automation (Sheridan) –the system must decide at runtime which functions to automate and to what extent Flexible autonomy (Technology horizons) –the degree of autonomous control that the system is allowed to take on, and in which this degree of autonomy can be varied from essentially none to near or complete autonomy Mixed-initiative interaction (Allen) –a flexible interaction strategy, where each agent can contribute to the task what it does best Collaborative Control (Fong) –allows robots to benefit from human assistance during perception and cognition, and not just planning and command generation Self Sufficiency Self Directedness

However… Automated assistance of whatever kind does not simply enhance our ability to perform the task: it changes the nature of the task itself 1. Many functions in complex systems are interdependent 1. D. A. Norman, "How might people interact with agents?," in Software Agents, J. M. Bradshaw, Ed. Cambridge, MA: The AAAI Press/The MIT Press, 1997, pp (see also How might people interact with robots?

Autonomy Problem Statement Interdependence When designing sophisticated human-agent systems, what is the critical design feature of an agent or robot?

Coactive Design In sophisticated human-agent systems, the underlying interdependence of joint activity is the critical design feature.

Disclaimer: The authors of this work are in no way suggesting autonomy is unimportant or not of value. If you work in the area of autonomy you should in no way feel threatened or troubled by the following discussion. If at any time you feel uncomfortable, please inform the speaker and he will pause and reassure you that autonomy is important and a foundational component to all robotic systems.

Coactive Design In sophisticated human-agent systems, the underlying interdependence of joint activity is the critical design feature.

Dependence vs. Interdependence

In sophisticated human-agent systems, the underlying interdependence of joint activity is the critical design feature. Coactive Design Dependent Independent Interdependent ?

In sophisticated human-agent systems, the underlying interdependence of joint activity is the critical design feature Coactive Design Dependent Independent Interdependent

What does coactive mean? Awareness of Consideration for Capability to support

What does coactive mean? Awareness of Consideration for Capability to support …Joint Activity

What does coactive mean? Awareness of Consideration for Capability to support …Joint Activity

What does coactive mean? Awareness of Consideration for Capability to support …Joint Activity

Autonomy Perspective Self-sufficiency Self-directedness

Capability to support Interdependence Coactive Perspective Self-sufficiency Self-directedness

Current Challenges Self-sufficiency Self-directedness Burden

Current Challenges Over-Trusted Self-sufficiency Self-directedness Burden

Current Challenges Over-Trusted Self-sufficiency Self-directedness Burden Under-Utilized

Current Challenges Over-Trusted Self-sufficiency Self-directedness Burden Under-Utilized Opaque

Low to Moderate autonomy – situation awareness Moderate to High autonomy - understanding decisions Coactive Perspective Self-sufficiency Self-directedness Burden Opaque Transparency Feedback Opaque Capability to support Interdependence

Hypothesis In human-agent systems engaged in joint activity, the benefits of higher levels of autonomy cannot be realized without addressing interdependence through coordination. Over Trusted Self-sufficiency Self-directedness Burden Under Utilized Opaque

Block World for Teams (BW4T)

Defining “Higher Levels” of Autonomy Over Trusted Self-sufficiency Self-directedness Burden Under Utilized Opaque

Did burden decrease? Did opacity increase? Was there an inflection point? Did performance decrease with increasing autonomy? What does this mean? Prediction Results

Block World for Teams (BW4T)

Future Directions Does addressing interdependence improve performance? How does interdependence effect the results? How do different ways to address interdependence effect performance? How does team size effect the result? Does this apply to other domains? How to we measure to costs and benefits?

We no longer look at the problem as simply trying to make agents more autonomous, but, in addition, we strive to make them more capable of being interdependent. Coactive Design Thank You! … Questions?

Common Issues Human NeedsRobot Needs What is the robot doing?Mutual TransparencyWhat is the intent of the human? Why did the robot do that? Mutual ExplainabilityWhat did the human want me to learn? What is the robot going to do next? Mutual PredictabilityWhat does the human need from me? Can we make the robot do what we need? Mutual DirectabilityCan the human provide help? Does use of autonomy add value? Mutual Cost Benefit Management Will my actions provide value to the human?