Computational simulation of adaptation of work strategies in human-robot teams

Abstract

Human-robot teams operating in complex work domains, such as space operations, need to adapt to maintain performance under a wide variety of work conditions. This thesis argues that from the start team design needs to establish team structures that allow flexibility in strategies for conducting the team’s collective work. In addition, team design needs to facilitate fluent coordination of work, fostering the interweaving of team members’ dependent actions in ways that accounts for the dynamic characteristics of the work and the work environment. This thesis establishes a methodology to analyze a team’s strategies based on computational modeling of a team’s collective work, including the teamwork required to coordinate dependent work between multiple team members. This approach consists of the systematic identification of feasible work strategies and the simulation of work models to address the dynamic and emergent nature of a team’s work. It provides a formative analysis tool to help designers predict and understand the effects of their design choices on a team’s feasible work strategies. Two case studies on space operations demonstrate how this approach can predict how work allocation and human-robot interaction modes can foster and/or limit the availability of appropriate work strategies.