Coactive DesignWhy Interdependence Must Shape Autonomy
Matthew [email protected]
Florida Institute forHuman and Machine Cognition
Pensacola, FL
TU Delft
December 15, 2010
Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition
Motivation
Problem Statement
When designing sophisticated human-agent systems, what is the critical design feature of an agent or robot?
Problem Statement
Autonomy
When designing sophisticated human-agent systems, what is the critical design feature of an agent or robot?
What is Autonomy?
Autonomy has two basic senses:
self-sufficiency, the capability of an entity to take care of itself.
self-directedness, or freedom from outside control.
Current Approaches• Function Allocation (Fitts)
– characterize the general strengths and weaknesses of humans and machines• Supervisory Control (Sheridan)
– a human oversees one or more autonomous systems, statically allocating tasks to them.• Adjustable Autonomy (Dorais)
– the ability of autonomous systems to operate with dynamically varying levels of independence• Sliding Autonomy (Dias)
– Same as adjustable autonomy• Adaptive Automation (Sheridan)
– the system must decide at runtime which functions to automate and to what extent• Flexible autonomy (Technology horizons)
– the degree of autonomous control that the system is allowed to take on, and in which this degree of autonomy can be varied from essentially none to near or complete autonomy
• Mixed-initiative interaction (Allen)– a flexible interaction strategy, where each agent can contribute to the task what it does best
• Collaborative Control (Fong) – allows robots to benefit from human assistance during perception and cognition, and not just planning and
command generation
Self Sufficiency
Self Directedness
However…
Automated assistance of whatever kind does not simply enhance our ability to perform the task: it changes the nature of the task itself1.
Many functions in complex systems are interdependent
1. D. A. Norman, "How might people interact with agents?," in Software Agents, J. M. Bradshaw, Ed. Cambridge, MA: The AAAI Press/The MIT Press, 1997, pp. 49-55 (see also How might people interact with robots? http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/how_might_humans_int.html).
AutonomyAutonomy
Problem Statement
Interdependence
When designing sophisticated human-agent systems, what is the critical design feature of an agent or robot?
Coactive Design
In sophisticated human-agent systems,the underlying interdependence of joint
activityis the critical design feature.
Disclaimer:The authors of this work are in no way suggesting autonomy is unimportant or not of value. If you work in the area of autonomy you should in no way feel threatened or troubled by the following discussion. If at any time you feel uncomfortable, please inform the speaker and he will pause and reassure you that autonomy is important and a foundational component to all robotic systems.
Coactive Design
In sophisticated human-agent systems,the underlying interdependence of joint
activityis the critical design feature.
Dependence vs. Interdependence
In sophisticated human-agent systems,the underlying interdependence of joint activity
is the critical design feature.
Coactive Design
Dependent Independent Interdependent
1997 2002
2008
?
In sophisticated human-agent systems,the underlying interdependence of joint activity
is the critical design feature.
1995
Coactive Design
Dependent Independent Interdependent
What does coactive mean?
Awareness of
Consideration for
Capability to support
What does coactive mean?
Awareness of
Consideration for
Capability to support
…Joint Activity
What does coactive mean?
Awareness of
Consideration for
Capability to support
…Joint Activity
What does coactive mean?
Awareness of
Consideration for
Capability to support
…Joint Activity
Autonomy Perspective
Self-sufficiency
Sel
f-dire
cted
ness
Capability to support
Interdependence
Coactive Perspective
Self-sufficiency
Sel
f-dire
cted
ness
Current Challenges
Self-sufficiency
Sel
f-dire
cted
ness
Burden
Current Challenges
Over-Trusted
Self-sufficiency
Sel
f-dire
cted
ness
Burden
Current Challenges
Over-Trusted
Self-sufficiency
Sel
f-dire
cted
ness
Burden Under-Utilized
Current Challenges
Over-Trusted
Self-sufficiency
Sel
f-dire
cted
ness
Burden Under-Utilized
Opaque
Low to Moderate autonomy – situation awareness
Moderate to High autonomy- understanding decisions
Coactive Perspective
Self-sufficiency
Sel
f-dire
cted
ness
Burden
Opaque
Transparency
Feedback
Opaque
Capability to support
Interdependence
Hypothesis• In human-agent systems engaged in joint activity, the benefits of
higher levels of autonomy cannot be realized without addressing interdependence through coordination.
OverTrusted
Self-sufficiency
Sel
f-dire
cted
ness
Burden UnderUtilized
Opaque
Block World for Teams (BW4T)
Defining “Higher Levels” of Autonomy
OverTrusted
Self-sufficiency
Sel
f-dire
cted
ness
Burden UnderUtilized
Opaque
• Did burden decrease?• Did opacity increase?• Was there an inflection point?• Did performance decrease with increasing autonomy?• What does this mean?
1 2 3 4640660680700720740760780800820
Average time to complete task vs. Autonomy Level
Autonomy Level (1=low, 4=high)
Tim
e to
com
plet
e ta
sk
(in s
econ
ds)
Prediction Results
team 1 -low team 1 - high team 2 - low team 2 - high0%
10%20%30%40%50%60%70%
4-Person TeamsOpen Communication
softhard
Block World for Teams (BW4T)
1a1%
1b11%
2a12%
2b14%
2d15%
39%
424%
6a2%
6b4%
6c9%
Communication in support of
High Interdependence1a1%
1b25%
2a3%
2b7%2d
7%
448%
55%
6a1%
6b1%
6c1%
Communication in support of
Low Interdependence
Future Directions• Does addressing interdependence improve
performance?• How does interdependence effect the results?• How do different ways to address
interdependence effect performance?• How does team size effect the result?• Does this apply to other domains?• How to we measure to costs and benefits?
We no longer look at the problem as simply trying to make agents more autonomous, but, in addition, we strive to make them more capable of being interdependent.
Coactive Design
Thank You! … Questions?
Common IssuesHuman Needs Robot Needs
What is the robot doing? Mutual Transparency What is the intent of the human?
Why did the robot do that?
Mutual Explainability What did the human want me to learn?
What is the robot going to do next?
Mutual Predictability What does the human need from me?
Can we make the robot do what we need?
Mutual Directability Can the human provide help?
Does use of autonomy add value?
Mutual Cost Benefit Management
Will my actions provide value to the human?