Characteristics of Human-Autonomy Teaming for Future Aerospace Operations

Two use cases in future aerospace operations were compared to better understand how an autonomous system could be perceived as a teammate. This comparison aims to identify the generalized characteristics and requirements of Human-Autonomy Teaming (HAT) in future single pilot operations and long-distance space operations. In many future operations, autonomous systems will have significant roles in complex decision-making tasks to support humans and to perform certain tasks without human direction. However, designing an autonomous system that acts as a teammate can be challenging for future concepts of operations that are not yet well-defined. Developing these systems requires careful human factors analysis to successfully integrate humans and autonomous systems in the work domain. A five-step systematic approach was developed to evaluate HAT in future aerospace operations: (1) eliciting knowledge, (2) extrapolating domain knowledge models, (3) defining requirements for HAT in future aerospace operations (Single Pilot Operations in commercial aviation, and long-distance human space exploration), (4) evaluating hypotheses and requirements, (5) synthesizing lessons learned and defining HAT characteristics and requirements. Emerging themes included design of autonomous system, interaction paradigms, communication and feedback modalities, teaming roles, and expected teammate characteristics and processes. Thirty-nine requirements were derived from comparison of the two case studies. The five-step approach can inform future HAT system development from a human factors perspective.