8. Adaptive Control in Human-Machine Systems

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses contemporary advances in the understanding of adaptive control as applied to systems that include the cooperative action of a machine and its operator. The key component of an adaptive interface is a reasoning process that selects a task allocation policy that changes the loading on the human in such a way as to improve overall system performance. This process must have access to both overall system goals (a model of the task) and information about what the person and machine components of the system are capable of accomplishing (person and system models). As an initial foundation, it is recognized in the chapter that the prosthetics that can surround individuals and augment their capabilities allow human operators to traverse the traditional boundary constraints imposed by the environment. A different approach is advocated where a hierarchical model of the task is built in terms of procedural and knowledge-based components. The human–machine interaction is a view of the task as a knowledge system that requires combined human–machine intelligence along with an interface that permits and controls joint human–machine reasoning. The chapter describes some developments in the understanding of human-adaptive response and the way by which such adaptive capability may be replicated in human–machine systems.