User Modelling for Principled Sliding Autonomy in Human-Robot Teams

The complexity of heterogeneous robotic teams and the domains in which they are deployed is fast outstripping the ability of autonomous control software to handle the myriad failure modes inherent in such systems. As a result, remote human operators are being brought into the teams as equal members via sliding autonomy to increase the robustness and effectiveness of such teams. A principled approach to deciding when to request help from the human will benefit such systems by allowing them to efficiently make use of the human partner. We have developed a cost-benefit analysis framework and models of both autonomous system and user in order to enable such principled decisions. In addition, we have conducted user experiments to determine the proper form for the learning curve component of the human's model. The resulting automated analysis is able to predict the performance of both the autonomous system and the human in order to assign responsibility for tasks to one or the other.