Expansion of situations theory for exploring shared awareness in human-intelligent autonomous systems

TL;DR

This paper explores how situations theory can be expanded to improve shared awareness in human-autonomous system teams, aiming to enhance effectiveness in complex environments like military operations.

Contribution

It develops an expanded framework of situations theory for understanding shared awareness in human-autonomous system teams, guiding future system design.

Findings

Proposes three conjectures for system of systems shared awareness

Highlights importance of shared situation awareness for team effectiveness

Provides conceptual insights for designing autonomous system collaborations

Abstract

Intelligent autonomous systems are part of a system of systems that interact with other agents to accomplish tasks in complex environments. However, intelligent autonomous systems integrated system of systems add additional layers of complexity based on their limited cognitive processes, specifically shared situation awareness that allows a team to respond to novel tasks. Intelligent autonomous systems' lack of shared situation awareness adversely influences team effectiveness in complex task environments, such as military command-and-control. A complementary approach of shared situation awareness, called situations theory, is beneficial for understanding the relationship between system of systems shared situation awareness and effectiveness. The current study elucidates a conceptual discussion on situations theory to investigate the development of an system of systems shared situational awareness when humans team with intelligent autonomous system agents. To ground the discussion, the reviewed studies expanded situations theory within the context of a system of systems that result in three major conjectures that can be beneficial to the design and development of future systems of systems.