An Analysis of Heterogeneity in Futuristic Unmanned Vehicle Systems
Author(s)
Nehme, C. E.; Cummings, M. L.![Thumbnail](/bitstream/handle/1721.1/46733/HAL2007_07.pdf.jpg?sequence=4&isAllowed=y)
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Other Contributors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Humans and Automation Laboratory
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Recent studies have shown that with appropriate operator decision support and with enough automation aboard
unmanned vehicles, inverting the multiple operators to single-vehicle control paradigm is possible. These studies,
however, have generally focused on homogeneous teams of vehicles, and have not completely addressed either the
manifestation of heterogeneity in vehicle teams, or the effects of heterogeneity on operator capacity. An important
implication of heterogeneity in unmanned vehicle teams is an increase in the diversity of possible team
configurations available for each operator, as well as an increase in the diversity of possible attention allocation
schemes that can be utilized by operators. To this end, this paper introduces a resource allocation framework that
defines the strategies and processes that lead to alternate team configurations. The framework also highlights the
sub-components of operator attention allocation schemes that can impact overall performance when supervising
heterogeneous unmanned vehicle teams. A subsequent discrete event simulation model of a single operator
supervising multiple heterogeneous vehicles and tasks explores operator performance under different heterogeneous
team compositions and varying attention allocation strategies. Results from the discrete event simulation model
show that the change in performance when switching from a homogeneous team to a heterogeneous one is highly
dependent on the change in operator utilization. Heterogeneous teams that result in lower operator utilization can
lead to improved performance under certain operator strategies.
Date issued
2007Publisher
MIT Humans and Automation Laboratory
Series/Report no.
HAL Reports;HAL2007-07