Concurrent Performance of Gunner's and Robotics Operator's Tasks in a Multitasking Environment

Abstract

In this study, we simulated a generic mounted crew station environment and conducted an experiment to examine the workload and performance of the combined position of gunner and robotics operator. Results showed that participants' gunnery task performances degraded significantly when he had to concurrently monitor, manage, or teleoperate an unmanned ground vehicle compared to the gunnery single task condition. For the robotics tasks, participants had the lowest performance when using the semi-autonomous robot, indicating overreliance on the aided target recognition capabilities available when task load was heavy (i.e., concurrent performance of the gunnery task). Participants' perceived workload increased consistently as the concurrent task conditions became more challenging. Individual difference factors such as spatial ability and perceived attentional control were found to correlate significantly with some of the performance measures. Implications for military personnel selection were discussed.The goal of this research was to examine whether gunners in a Future Combat System (FCS) vehicle such as the Mounted Combat System (MCS) were able to effectively maintain local security (i.e., perform their gunner's tasks) while managing unmanned assets. The current FCS concept for the MCS is that it will be operated MILITARY PSYCHOLOGY,

Effectiveness of Concurrent Performance of Military and Robotics Tasks and Effects of Cueing and Individual Differences in a Simulated Reconnaissance Environment

“…They found that participants with a high survey score could better resist interference in a Stroop-like spatial conflict task. In one of our previous studies (Chen and Joyner, 2009), we observed a positive, although somewhat weak, relationship between attentional control survey score and some multitasking performance measures. Participants' workload was evaluated using the computer-based version of NASA-TLX (Hart & Staveland, 1988).…”

“…In a recent study, Cassenti et al (2009) demonstrated that robotics operators with higher SpA (measured by a mental rotation test) performed robot navigation tasks significantly better than those with lower SpA. Our previous studies (Chen et al, 2008;Chen & Joyner, 2009) also found SpA to be a good predictor of the operator's robotics and gunnery task performance. In the domain of visual spatial displays, Stanney and Salvendy (1995) found that high SpA individuals outperformed those with low SpA on tasks that required visuo-spatial representations to be mentally constructed.…”

“…There is some evidence that attention-switching flexibility can predict performance of such diverse tasks as flight training and bus driving (Kahneman et al, 1973). There is also evidence that people with better attention control can allocate their attention more flexibly and effectively www.intechopen.com Advances in Human-Robot Interaction 236 (Bleckley et al, 2003;Derryberry & Reed, 2002), and this was partially confirmed by Chen and Joyner (2009). It is likely that operators with different levels of attention switching abilities may react differently to automated systems with FAs and misses.…”

“…SpA has been found to be a significant factor in virtual environment navigation (Stanney & Salvendy, 1995), learning to use a medical teleoperation device (Eyal & Tendick, 2001), target search task (Chen et al, 2008;Chen & Joyner, 2009), and robotics task performance (Cassenti et al, 2009;Lathan & Tracey, 2002;Menchaca-Brandan et al, 2007). For example, Lathan and Tracey (2002) demonstrated that people with higher SpA performed better in a teleoperation task through a maze.…”

Soldier-Robot Teaming: Effects of Multimodal Collaboration on Team Communication for Robot Reconnaissance

“…The price is the additional workload and loss of situation awareness (SA) when the Soldier is most vulnerable. Robotic teleoperation focuses the operator on the robotic task, to the detriment of personal security (Chen and Joyner, 2009). …”