1. Leveraging Human-Computer Collaboration for Decision Making in Complex Systems
Mary (Missy) Cummings
Humans & Automation Lab
Aeronautics & Astronautics

2. Focus Areas Supervisory Control
Humans vs. automation in complex systems
Mixed initiative approach to decision making
How to apply interactive decision aiding strategies to allow a human to explore the automation decision space?
Information Visualization
Cost functions, constraints & variables
Sensitivity analysis
Smith, Layton, McCoy
My research
Mica and Kaber
Lower sometimes better but there has to be another way!

3. Human Supervisory Control
Controls
Sensors
Computer
Task
Human Operator
(Supervisor)
Displays
Actuators
Planning a computer-based task
Communicating to the computer what was planned
Monitoring the computer’s actions for errors and/or failures
Intervening when the plan has been completed or the computer requires assistance
Human & computer learn from the experience
Bandwidth
Trust
Machine/computer metaphors

4. Research Motivation: Tactical Tomahawk Project

5. Proposed Tactical Tomahawk Missions
Primary (Default)
Target
Default Mission
Flex Mission
Preplanned
Health and Status
points
Emergent Mission
Guidance
Waypoint
Alternate (Flex)
Target
Branch
Point
Default
Target
Loiter Pattern
Time-critical
(emergent) Target
Launch Basket

6. Automation Description
Sheridan & Verplank’s
10 Levels of Automation
Automation Level
Automation Description 1
The computer offers no assistance: human must take all decision and actions. 2
The computer offers a complete set of decision/action alternatives, or 3
narrows the selection down to a few, or 4
suggests one alternative, and 5
executes that suggestion if the human approves, or 6
allows the human a restricted time to veto before automatic execution, or 7
executes automatically, then necessarily informs humans, and 8
informs the human only if asked, or 9
informs the human only if it, the computer, decides to. 10
The computer decides everything and acts autonomously, ignoring the human.

7. Supervisory Command & Control
Operators effectively controlled up to 12 missiles
Original “guestimate” was 4, FAA results similar
Automation bias and communication management were issues

8. Human Supervisory Control & Network Centric Warfare
Appropriate levels of automation
Information overload
Adaptive automation
Distributed decision-making through team coordination
Complexity measures
Decision biases
Attention allocation
Supervisory monitoring of operators

9. Information Overload

10. Adaptive Automation Dynamic role allocation System constraints
Mixed initiatives
System constraints
Skill Rule Knowledge-based behaviors
Cueing mechanisms
Psychophysiological
Noisy
Decision theoretic

11. Complexity Measures in HSC
Complexity of
Environment
Complexity of
Goals
Complexity of
Procedures
Complexity of
Displays
Cognitive
Complexity
Direct relationship
Indirect relationship

12. Human Interaction with Autonomous Vehicles
Human interaction with anytime path planning algorithms
Time-critical domains
Windows into automation
Multiple vehicle task management decision support
Levels of automation
Preview times
Stopping rules
Swarming behavior

13. Command & Control:
Rapid Replanning

14. Resource Allocation

15. Formation Flying in the Future