The effectiveness of uncertainty communication with varied automation reliability: Specificity is necessary but (potentially) not enough

Abstract

Automation reliance and functionality are ever increasing, especially in supervisory control environments like unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missions. Of particular relevance is understanding how automation transparency, i.e., explaining the capabilities and limitations of automation to the human in real-time, can improve human-automation performance across automated systems that vary in reliability. Two hundred seventy one Naval Aviation trainees completed a simulated multi-UAV supervisory control mission for 42 minutes with three automated systems that varied in reliability. Participants were never explicitly told the reliability varied, but halfway through the mission, they were alerted that the least reliable system may falter. Results indicated human-automation performance improved after the alert for this specific system, but not as a whole, as one system’s human-automation performance deteriorated. This work suggests uncertainty communication should not only include the specific, real-time capabilities of the automation, but also communicate unintentional consequences it may have on the whole environment.