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Developing operator capacity estimates for supervisory control of autonomous vehicles
M L Cummings1, Stephanie Guerlain
1Humans and Automation Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. missyc@mit.edu
Human Factors
|February 24, 2007
Summary
Human supervisory control of autonomous missiles degrades significantly when operators manage 16 missiles, impacting performance and situation awareness. A 70% operator utilization threshold predicts performance decay.
Area of Science:
- Human-computer interaction
- Autonomous systems
- Cognitive workload
Background:
- Human supervisory control is essential for autonomous systems, requiring operators for planning and intervention.
- Dynamic decision support systems for rapid replanning under time pressure need further research, especially concerning operator workload.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine operator capacity in reallocating autonomous missiles to time-sensitive targets during secondary tasks.
- To assess the impact of missile control load on operator performance and situation awareness.
Main Methods:
- A dual-screen simulation tested 42 U.S. Navy personnel.
- Operators monitored and controlled 8, 12, or 16 autonomous missiles.
- Secondary tasks of varying complexity were incorporated.
Main Results:
- Controlling 16 missiles significantly degraded operator performance across three metrics.
- Situation awareness was also significantly impaired when managing the highest number of missiles.
Conclusions:
- Findings align with air traffic control studies, showing performance decline with increased workload.
- A 70% operator utilization threshold may predict significant performance decay, aiding manning predictions.
- Research is applicable to human supervisory control of networked unmanned vehicles across domains.
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