Communication Strategies in Human-Autonomy Teams During Technological Failures.

OBJECTIVE: This study examines low-, medium-, and high-performing Human-Autonomy Teams' (HATs') communication strategies during various technological failures that impact routine communication strategies to adapt to the task environment. BACKGROUND: Teams must adapt their communication strategies during dynamic tasks, where more successful teams make more substantial adaptations. Adaptations in communication strategies may explain how successful HATs overcome technological failures. Further, technological failures of variable severity may alter communication strategies of HATs at different performance levels in their attempts to overcome each failure. METHOD: HATs in a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System-Synthetic Task Environment (RPAS-STE), involving three team members, were tasked with photographing targets. Each triad had two randomly assigned participants in navigator and photographer roles, teaming with an experimenter who simulated an AI pilot in a Wizard of Oz paradigm. Teams encountered two different technological failures, automation and autonomy, where autonomy failures were more challenging to overcome. RESULTS: High-performing HATs calibrated their communication strategy to the complexity of the different failures better than medium- and low-performing teams. Further, HATs adjusted their communication strategies over time. Finally, only the most severe failures required teams to increase the efficiency of their communication. CONCLUSION: HAT effectiveness under degraded conditions depends on the type of communication strategies enacted by the team. Previous findings from studies of all-human teams apply here; however, novel results suggest information requests are particularly important to HAT success during failures. APPLICATION: Understanding the communication strategies of HATs under degraded conditions can inform training protocols to help HATs overcome failures.

Measuring Real-Time Team Cognition During Team Training.

OBJECTIVE: A method for detecting real-time changes in team cognition in the form of significant communication reorganizations is described. We demonstrate the method in the context of scenario-based simulation training. BACKGROUND: We present the dynamical view that individual- and team-level aspects of team cognition are temporally intertwined in a team's real-time response to challenging events. We suggest that this real-time response represents a fundamental team cognitive skill regarding the rapidity and appropriateness of the response, and methods and metrics are needed to track this skill. METHOD: Communication data from medical teams (Study 1) and submarine crews (Study 2) were analyzed for significant communication reorganization in response to training events. Mutual information between team members informed post hoc filtering to identify which team members contributed to reorganization. RESULTS: Significant communication reorganizations corresponding to challenging training events were detected for all teams. Less experienced teams tended to show delayed and sometimes ineffective responses that more experienced teams did not. Mutual information and post hoc filtering identified the individual-level inputs driving reorganization and potential mechanisms (e.g., leadership emergence, role restructuring) underlying reorganization. CONCLUSION: The ability of teams to rapidly and effectively reorganize coordination patterns as the situation demands is a team cognitive skill that can be measured and tracked. APPLICATION: Potential applications include team monitoring and assessment that would allow for visualization of a team's real-time response and provide individualized feedback based on team member's contributions to the team response.

Evaluating sociotechnical dynamics in a simulated remotely-piloted aircraft system: a layered dynamics approach.

As coordination mechanisms change and technology failures occur, a sociotechnical system must reorganise itself across human and technological layers to maintain effectiveness. We present a study examining reorganisation across communication, controls and vehicle layers of a remotely-piloted aircraft system (RPAS) using a layered dynamics approach. Team members (pilot; navigator; photographer) performed 5 simulated RPAS missions using different operator configurations, including all-human and human-autonomy teams. Reorganization (operationally defined using entropy) time series measured the changing system reorganisation profiles under different operator configurations and following autonomy failures. Correlations between these reorganisation profiles and team effectiveness scores describe the manner in which the system had to be coordinated to maintain effectiveness under these changing conditions. Four unplanned autonomy failures were analysed to visualise system reorganisation following a technology failure. With its objective and real-time modelling and measurement capabilities, layered dynamics complements existing systems thinking tools for understanding sociotechnical complexity and enhancing system effectiveness. Practitioner summary: A layered dynamics approach for understanding how a sociotechnical system dynamically reorganises itself is presented. The layered dynamics of RPAS were analysed under different operator configurations and following autonomy failures. Layered dynamics complements existing system-thinking tools for modelling sociotechnical system complexity and effectiveness. Abbreviation: RPAS: remotely-piloted aircraft system; HIS: human-systems integration; EAST: event analysis of systemic teamwork; H1: hypothesis 1; H2: hypothesis 2; H3: hypothesis 3; CERTT-STE: cognitive engineering research on team tasks--synthetic task environment; AVO: air vehicle operator; PLO: payload operator; DEMPC: data exploitation, mission planning, and communications; ACT-R: adaptive control of thought-rational; sec: seconds; ANOVA: analysis of variance.