Sponsor: Kairos Ventures

PI: Dan Szafir

Abstract: Future work in domains including manufacturing, construction, disaster response, and space exploration will depend on seamless integration and collaboration of complex teams. Traditionally, such teams have included human workers, planners, and supervisors, but are increasingly seeking to leverage new capabilities provided by autonomous systems and robotic technologies. However, coordinating complex human-robot teams for tasks such as building construction or locating missing persons represents a complex, multifaceted problem, where communication delays, breakdowns in shared mental models, and/or inadequate levels of situational awareness may drastically impair complex decision-making, team adaptation, and overall team effectiveness. Humans typically address issues in teamwork coordination by augmenting verbal communication with social cues, such as gestures and gaze behaviors. However, these methods may not be feasible or adequate for robotic systems (especially for autonomous systems that lack a humanoid form). Instead, this project will advance fundamental knowledge regarding the design and development of novel augmented reality (AR) interfaces that support complex human-robot team coordination.