Human-automation collaboration : decision support for lunar and planetary exploration

Balancing task allocation between humans and computers is crucial to the development of effective decision support systems. This thesis investigates the appropriate balance between humans and automation for geospatial path problem solving within the high-risk domain of human planetary surface exploration, where decisions are time critical and humans must adapt to uncertainty. In order to develop flexible and robust decision support systems for Lunar and planetary exploration, human-automation role allocations are examined to understand how humans conduct complex optimizations under different degrees of automated assistance. A work domain analysis of human planetary extravehicular activities (EVA) resulted in a framework for human-robotic planning, including key input variables, constraints, and outputs. Based on this analysis, a prototype path planning aid was developed. Under investigation was the use of partial automatic path generation and a visualization called levels of equal cost (LOEC, an aggregate cost map). Human-in-the-loop testing was employed to understand the effects of the automated assistance and different visualizations on path planning performance across multivariate cost functions. In two separate experiments, participants were tasked to make obstacle-free, least-costly paths based on given cost functions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Márquez, Jessica J., 1976-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mary L. Cummings.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38526

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38526