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The Impact of Different Levels of Autonomy and Training on Operators’ Drone Control Strategies

Authors:

Mary L. CummingsAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (THRI), Volume 8, Issue 4

Article No.: 22, Pages 1 - 15

https://doi.org/10.1145/3344276

Published: 15 November 2019 Publication History

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Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, have extensive applications in civilian rescue and military surveillance realms. A common drone control scheme among such applications is human supervisory control, in which human operators remotely navigate drones and direct them to conduct high-level tasks. However, different levels of autonomy in the control system and different operator training processes may affect operators’ performance in task success rate and efficiency. An experiment was designed and conducted to investigate such potential impacts. The results showed us that a dedicated supervisory drone control interface tended toward increased operator successful task completion as compared to an enhanced teleoperation control interface, although this difference was not statistically significant. In addition, using Hidden Markov Models, operator behavior models were developed to further study the impact of operators’ drone control strategies as a function of differing levels of autonomy. These models revealed that people with both supervisory and enhanced teleoperation control training were not able to determine the right control action at the right time to the same degree that people with just training in the supervisory control mode. Future work is needed to determine how trust plays a role in such settings.

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Cited By

Morgan GGrabowski M(2025)Human machine teaming in mobile miniaturized aviation logistics systems in safety-critical settingsJournal of Safety and Sustainability10.1016/j.jsasus.2025.02.001Online publication date: Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsasus.2025.02.001
Turovsky YSurovtsev AAlekseev VRybak L(2024)Monitoring the State of the Operator of the Ergatic System in UAV Control TasksMachines10.3390/machines1205029112:5(291)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/machines12050291
Cheng JMahmud SMohammed MSingh AKim J(2024)Design of a Novice-Friendly Drone Control System2024 IEEE 14th Annual Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC)10.1109/CCWC60891.2024.10427804(0184-0190)Online publication date: 8-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/CCWC60891.2024.10427804
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Index Terms

The Impact of Different Levels of Autonomy and Training on Operators’ Drone Control Strategies
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Empirical studies in HCI
    2. HCI theory, concepts and models

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction

ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction Volume 8, Issue 4

Survey Paper and Special Issue on Representation Learning for Human and Robot Cognition

December 2019

108 pages

EISSN:2573-9522

DOI:10.1145/3372354

Editors:
Odest Chadwicke Jenkins
University of Michigan, USA
,
Selma Sabanovic
Indiana University, USA

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Copyright © 2019 Owner/Author.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 15 November 2019

Accepted: 01 July 2019

Revised: 01 June 2019

Received: 01 July 2018

Published in THRI Volume 8, Issue 4

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Office of Naval Research under the Science of Autonomy program

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Cited By

Morgan GGrabowski M(2025)Human machine teaming in mobile miniaturized aviation logistics systems in safety-critical settingsJournal of Safety and Sustainability10.1016/j.jsasus.2025.02.001Online publication date: Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsasus.2025.02.001
Turovsky YSurovtsev AAlekseev VRybak L(2024)Monitoring the State of the Operator of the Ergatic System in UAV Control TasksMachines10.3390/machines1205029112:5(291)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/machines12050291
Cheng JMahmud SMohammed MSingh AKim J(2024)Design of a Novice-Friendly Drone Control System2024 IEEE 14th Annual Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC)10.1109/CCWC60891.2024.10427804(0184-0190)Online publication date: 8-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/CCWC60891.2024.10427804
French ACummings MZhu HPajic M(2024)Determining Novice and Expert Status in Human–Automation Interaction Through Hidden Markov ModelsApplied Artificial Intelligence10.1080/08839514.2024.240217438:1Online publication date: 10-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/08839514.2024.2402174
Znakovska YAveryanova YOstroumov IZaliskyi MHolubnychyi OSushchenko OPogurelskiy OVoliansky R(2024)The Information Technologies Use for UAS Operators’ TrainingInformation Technology for Education, Science, and Technics10.1007/978-3-031-71804-5_22(327-338)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-71804-5_22
Lijcklama à Nijeholt LKronshorst TTeeffelen Kvan Manen BEmaus RKnotter JMersha A(2023)Utilizing Drone-Based Ground-Penetrating Radar for Crime Investigations in Localizing and Identifying Clandestine GravesSensors10.3390/s2316711923:16(7119)Online publication date: 11-Aug-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/s23167119
Lee JYu K(2023)Wearable Drone Controller: Machine Learning-Based Hand Gesture Recognition and Vibrotactile FeedbackSensors10.3390/s2305266623:5(2666)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/s23052666
Popović KSchlafly MPrabhakar AKim CMurphey T(2023)Measuring Human-Robot Team Benefits Under Time Pressure in a Virtual Reality Testbed2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)10.1109/IROS55552.2023.10341794(5410-5417)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2023
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Ellwart TSchauffel N(2023)Human-Autonomy Teaming in Ship Inspection: Psychological Perspectives on the Collaboration Between Humans and Self-Governing SystemsSmart Ports and Robotic Systems10.1007/978-3-031-25296-9_18(343-362)Online publication date: 3-Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25296-9_18
Li SCummings MWelton B(2022)Assessing the impact of autonomy and overconfidence in UAV first-person view trainingApplied Ergonomics10.1016/j.apergo.2021.10358098(103580)Online publication date: Jan-2022
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2021.103580
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