Effects of unreliable automation and individual differences on supervisory control of multiple ground robots

A military multitasking environment was simulated to examine the effects of unreliable automation on the performance of robotics operators. The main task was to manage a team of four ground robots with the assistance of RoboLeader, an intelligent agent capable of coordinating the robots and changing their routes based upon developments in the mission environment. RoboLeader's recommendations were manipulated to be either false-alarm prone or miss prone, with a reliability level of either 60% or 90%. The visual density of the targeting environment was manipulated by the presence or absence of friendly soldiers. Results showed that the type of RoboLeader unreliability (false-alarm vs. miss prone) affected operator's performance of tasks involving visual scanning (target detection, route editing, and situation awareness). There was a consistent effect of visual density for multiple performance measures. Participants with higher spatial ability performed better on the two tasks that required the most visual scanning (target detection and route editing). Participants' attentional control impacted their overall multitasking performance, especially during their execution of the secondary tasks (communication and gauge monitoring).