Design and Evaluation of Automated Decision Aids for Tactical Awareness

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Automation in complex systems, while often highly reliable, is never perfect. This means that human operators must decide when to rely on automation and when to reject its erroneous conclusions and inappropriate advice. Intuitively, operators should depend on automation more when it is more reliable - and less when it is less reliable. However, previous research shows that operators do not adjust their reliance behaviour enough as the automation reliability changes. Operators may sometimes be sceptical and reject automation even when it offers useful information, conclusions or recommendations. Alternatively, they may sometimes be too trusting and depend on automation that is not suitable for the situation at hand. To make the most of new automation technologies - and the humans who supervise them - we need to better understand the factors that lead operators to rely on or reject automation. We also need to develop methods to encourage human operators to rely on automation appropriately. Our research will create new knowledge in both of these areas. In earlier work, we developed a statistical method to determine how much operators should adjust their reliance behaviour as automation reliability changed. We will extend that method to consider factors beyond automation reliability, such as the operator's own ability to complete the task. This will allow us to understand the factors underlying reliance decisions in greater depth. We have also shown in earlier work that well-designed visual displays help operators better distinguish changes in automation reliability and rely on it more appropriately. We will pursue this by developing and testing new display concepts in increasingly realistic simulators.The research will emphasize combat identification technologies used by soldiers to identify and track friendly units on the battlefield. However, the results of this research can be applied to a wide variety of automated systems found in healthcare, transportation and energy systems. Supporting effective human interaction with automation will result in safer and more productive operation of all of these systems.