Situation Awareness-based Agent Transparency Model Research Articles

Transparency for a Workload-Adaptive Cognitive Agent in a Manned–Unmanned Teaming Application

This study focuses on the transparent design of a cognitive agent to enhance situation awareness in two aspects of a human-agent teaming application: assisted system management and mixed-initiative mission planning. Adaptive and complex agent behavior might result in the failure to comprehend resulting interventions, a decrease in trust, and a loss of overall situation awareness. This study describes and validates a concept for transparent agent design by adopting the transparency strategies proposed by the “situation awareness-based agent transparency model.” The overall objective was to improve the human operator's perception, comprehension, and projection of the agent's support. The concept was applied to the prototype of a workload-adaptive cognitive agent, which supports a helicopter crew during mission planning and execution in complex and dynamically changing multi-vehicle missions. A human-in-the-loop experiment revealed enhancements in situation awareness and performance. Subjective trust measures implied an increase in human-like characteristics of the cognitive agent. The results and the potential for further research are discussed.

Application of the GORITE BDI Framework to Human-Autonomy Teaming: A Case Study

Human-Autonomy Teaming (HAT) is of growing interest in the military sector, particularly in its application to war gaming using semi-automated computer generated forces (CGF). In these applications, one or more operators manage multiple semi-autonomous game entities. If effective collaboration (teaming) is to occur between operators and entities, then having effective interaction models is essential if the levels of trust and explanatory capability required for military operations are to be delivered. The Situation Awareness-Based Agent Transparency (SAT) Model has been identified as providing a suitable conceptual framework for such models. However, while the SAT model is informed by the Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) model of agency, to date there has been no implementation of an interaction model at the level of desires and intentions, i.e. goals. In this paper, we propose that GORITE, a novel BDI framework that employs explicit goal representations and a shared data context for goal execution, provides a suitable platform for the development of SAT-enabled agents. The feasibility of this proposition is demonstrated through the development of a simple but representative CGF case study.

Situation awareness-based agent transparency and human-autonomy teaming effectiveness

ABSTRACTEffective collaboration between humans and agents depends on humans maintaining an appropriate understanding of and calibrated trust in the judgment of their agent counterparts. The Situation Awareness-based Agent Transparency (SAT) model was proposed to support human awareness in human–agent teams. As agents transition from tools to artificial teammates, an expansion of the model is necessary to support teamwork paradigms, which require bidirectional transparency. We propose that an updated model can better inform human–agent interaction in paradigms involving more advanced agent teammates. This paper describes the model's use in three programmes of research, which exemplify the utility of the model in different contexts – an autonomous squad member, a mediator between a human and multiple subordinate robots, and a plan recommendation agent. Through this review, we show that the SAT model continues to be an effective tool for facilitating shared understanding and proper calibration of trust in human–agent teams.

Intelligent Agent Transparency

We evaluated the usability and utility of an unmanned vehicle management interface that was developed based on the Situation awareness–based Agent Transparency model. We sought to examine the effect of increasing levels of agent transparency on operator task performance and perceived usability of the agent. Usability and utility were assessed through flash testing, a focus group, and experimental testing. While usability appeared to decrease with the portrayal of uncertainty, operator performance and reliance on key parts of the interface increased. Implications and next steps are discussed.

The Effects of Agent Transparency on Human Interaction with an Autonomous Robotic Agent

We use the Situation awareness-based Agent Transparency model as a framework to design a user interface to support agent transparency. Participants were instructed to supervise an autonomous robotic agent as it traversed simulated urban environments. During this task, participants were exposed to one of three levels of information used to support agent transparency in the interface display. Our findings suggest that providing agent transparency information allows operators to properly calibrate trust without excess workload. Though, increased agent transparency information did not support operator situation awareness.