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Showing papers on "Situation awareness published in 2008"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The field of human-robot interaction and augmented reality is reviewed, the potential avenues for creating natural human- robot collaboration through spatial dialogue utilizing AR are investigated and a holistic architectural design for human-robotic collaboration is proposed.
Abstract: NASA's vision for space exploration stresses the cultivation of human-robotic systems. Similar systems are also envisaged for a variety of hazardous earthbound applications such as urban search and rescue. Recent research has pointed out that to reduce human workload, costs, fatigue driven error and risk, intelligent robotic systems will need to be a significant part of mission design. However, little attention has been paid to joint human-robot teams. Making human-robot collaboration natural and efficient is crucial. In particular, grounding, situational awareness, a common frame of reference and spatial referencing are vital in effective communication and collaboration. Augmented Reality (AR), the overlaying of computer graphics onto the real worldview, can provide the necessary means for a human-robotic system to fulfill these requirements for effective collaboration. This article reviews the field of human-robot interaction and augmented reality, investigates the potential avenues for creating natural...

264 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A nominal model of an urban environment obtained by aerial surveillance, is used to generate strategies for exploration and the construction of a radio signal strength map is presented that can be used to plan multi‐robot tasks, and also serve as useful perceptual information.
Abstract: In this paper, we present an experimental study of strategies for maintaining end-to-end communication links for tasks such as surveillance, reconnaissance, and target search and identification, where team connectivity is required for situational awareness. Our main contributions are threefold: (a) We present the construction of a radio signal strength map that can be used to plan multi-robot tasks, and also serve as useful perceptual information. We show how a nominal model of an urban environment obtained by aerial surveillance, is used to generate strategies for exploration. (b) We present reactive controllers for communication link maintenance; and (c) we consider the differences between monitoring signal strength versus data throughput. Experimental results, obtained using our multi-robot testbed in three representative urban environments are presented with each of our main contributions. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

166 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The observed improvement was sufficiently large to suggest that EID could improve situation awareness in situations where procedures are unavailable, and suggests that the approach requires further development, particularly in integrating EID with procedural support.
Abstract: Objective: We determine whether an ecological interface display for nuclear power plant operations supports improved situation awareness over traditional and user-centered displays in a realistic environment. Background: Ecological interface design (EID) has not yet been fully evaluated with real operators facing realistic scenarios. Method: Ecological displays were evaluated alongside traditional and user-centered “advanced” displays in a full-scope nuclear power plant simulation. Licensed plant operators used the displays in realistic scenarios that either had procedural support or did not have procedural support. All three displays were evaluated for their ability to support operator situation awareness. Results: A significant three-way interaction effect was observed on two independent measures of situation awareness. For both measures, ecological displays improved situation awareness in scenarios that did not have procedural support, primarily in the detection phases of those scenarios. No other pron...

132 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A snapshot of the work on situation awareness, which involves operators' comprehension of the dynamic situation that they are monitoring or controlling, and how a distinction present years ago, the product of comprehension versus the process of comprehension, not only continues today but characterizes different research directions.
Abstract: Objective: We present a snapshot of the work on situation awareness, which involves operators' comprehension of the dynamic situation that they are monitoring or controlling. Background: Although human factors has always been concerned with helping the operator in his or her work environment, research exploded in the mid-1990s on one relevant construct, situation awareness. Method: We discuss how a distinction present years ago, the product of comprehension versus the process of comprehension, not only continues today but characterizes different research directions. Research on situation awareness has benefited and can continue to benefit from an analogy to the better understood comprehension of narrative and expository text, although such an analogy between text and dynamic environments will ultimately have limits. Results: Situation awareness as a notion that organizes and focuses research efforts has rightfully spread to research in virtually every industrial domain, and it is an essential part of work...

125 citations


Patent
29 Sep 2008
TL;DR: In this article, a multi-functional sensing and communicating integration of technologies consolidated into one portable, telemetry device is presented, which comprises a personnel accountability and situational awareness monitoring communications system for hazardous work personnel that comprises wireless network-adaptable sensoring-monitoring devices, peripherals and base station dashboard software for telemetry monitoring of real-time information at a plurality of personnel accountability this article.
Abstract: A Continuation-in-Part (CIP) of application Ser. No. 12/286,210 for the system of the present invention “Multifunctional Telemetry Alert Safety System” or “MTASS”, which comprises a personnel accountability and situational awareness monitoring communications system for hazardous work personnel that comprises wireless network-adaptable sensoring-monitoring devices, peripherals and base station dashboard software for telemetry monitoring of real-time information at a plurality of personnel accountability and situational awareness parameters of critical data about the safety, health and whereabouts of hazardous workers deployed in typically dangerous environments. Exterior worker management for urban/wildland firefighting, paramedics, search & rescue, hazmat, coal mines, oil platforms, law enforcement, and other hazardous work, achieve real-time command view and control over a variety, of personnel accountability and safety parameters during work activities of personnel wearing the system of the present invention portable device while operating within the mobile ad hoc wireless network. The portable device is a multi-functional sensing and communicating integration of technologies consolidated into one portable, telemetry device. The portable device's multifunctional integrated technology includes the monitoring, telemetry and alert notification of accountability identification, location, assignment notification, vital signs, ambient vicinity temperature, breathing apparatus status, combustible gas sensing, video streaming, “evacuation” recall signaling, signal tracking and multi-alarm signaling if the wearer has either low remaining air pressure/time, impending thermal breakthrough, low battery power, exceed the safety threshold for safe heart rate or external body temperature readings, or becomes motionless for a predetermined time period, or manually signals for help.

119 citations



Patent
Chiao-fe Shu1, Arun Hampapur, Zuoxuan Lu, Yingli Tian, Lisa M. Brown, Andrew W. Senior 
04 Jun 2008
TL;DR: In this article, a plurality of analytic engines is associated with each of the plurality of sensors, and a unifying data model is configured to cross correlate detected events from different technologies to gain integrated situation awareness across the different technologies.
Abstract: A surveillance system and method includes a plurality of sensors configured to monitor an environment. A plurality of analytic engines is associated with each of the plurality of sensors. The plurality of analytic engines employs different technologies and is configured to analyze input from the sensors to determine whether an event has occurred in a respective technology. A unifying data model is configured to cross correlate detected events from the different technologies to gain integrated situation awareness across the different technologies.

106 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
20 Jul 2008
TL;DR: Active research on situation awareness (SA) as it applies to the power transmission and distribution (T&D) industry is described to identify areas where SA needs are lacking within the industry, and provides valuable insights to inform the development of future technology to support SA in the power T&D domain.
Abstract: This paper describes active research on situation awareness (SA) as it applies to the power transmission and distribution (T&D) industry. Recent emphases on situation awareness in the power T&D industry have highlighted the lack of SA-related research in this domain. This gap has been recognized by several organizations, leading to the development of new commercial energy management systems, reactive reserve monitoring tools, and visualization systems designed to assist T&D operators in monitoring, predicting, anticipating, and preventing potential problems that could lead to major power outages. The essential element in each of these endeavors is a focused effort on understanding and increasing operator SA in T&D control centers. The power T&D domain presents multiple vantage points upon which operator SA can be improved. The power T&D industry continues to seek a solution to its situation awareness gap. The work described in this paper helps to identify areas where SA needs are lacking within the industry, and provides valuable insights to inform the development of future technology to support SA in the power T&D domain.

101 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Nov 2008
TL;DR: A novel interface, the state vector envelope, is presented that is intended to provide the pilot with both low-level Information, allowing direct action, and high-level information, allowing conflict understanding and situation awareness.
Abstract: In a free-flight airspace environment, pilots have more freedom to choose user-preferred trajectories. An onboard pilot support system is needed that exploits travel freedom while maintaining spatial separation with other traffic. Ecological interface design is used to design an interface tool that assists pilots with the tactical planning of efficient conflict-free trajectories toward their destination. Desired pilot actions emerge from the visualization of workspace affordances in terms of a suitable description of aircraft (loco)motion. Traditional models and descriptions for aircraft motion cannot be applied efficiently for this purpose. Through functional modeling, more suitable locomotion models for trajectory planning are analyzed. As a result, a novel interface, the state vector envelope, is presented that is intended to provide the pilot with both low-level information, allowing direct action, and high-level information, allowing conflict understanding and situation awareness.

100 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The findings reinforce the notion that when viewing situation awareness in collaborative systems, it is useful to focus on the coordinated behaviour of the system itself, rather than on the individual as the unit of analysis, and suggest that the findings from such assessments can potentially be used to inform system, procedure and training design.
Abstract: The concept of distributed situation awareness (DSA) is currently receiving increasing attention from the human factors community. This article investigates DSA in a collaborative real-world industrial setting by discussing the results derived from a recent naturalistic study undertaken within the UK energy distribution domain. The results describe the DSA-related information used by the networks of agents involved in the scenarios analysed, the sharing of this information between the agents and the salience of different information elements used. Thus, the structure, quality and content of each network's DSA is discussed, along with the implications for DSA theory. The findings reinforce the notion that when viewing situation awareness (SA) in collaborative systems, it is useful to focus on the coordinated behaviour of the system itself, rather than on the individual as the unit of analysis and suggest that the findings from such assessments can potentially be used to inform system, procedure and training design. SA is a critical commodity for teams working in industrial systems and systems, procedures and training programmes should be designed to facilitate efficient system SA acquisition and maintenance. This article presents approaches for describing and understanding SA during real-world collaborative tasks, the outputs from which can potentially be used to inform system, training programmes and procedure design.

96 citations


Proceedings Article
26 Sep 2008
TL;DR: A combined methodology of data visualization, interaction and mining techniques that allows filtering out anomalous vessels, by building a model over normal behavior from which the user can detect deviations.
Abstract: Surveillance of large land, air or sea areas with a multitude of sensor and sensor types typically generates huge amounts of data. Human operators trying to establish individual or collective maritime situation awareness are often overloaded by this information. In order to help them cope with this information overload, we have developed a combined methodology of data visualization, interaction and mining techniques that allows filtering out anomalous vessels, by building a model over normal behavior from which the user can detect deviations. The methodology includes a set of interactive visual representations that support the insertion of the userpsilas knowledge and experience in the creation, validation and continuous update of the normal model. Additionally, this paper presents a software prototype that implements the suggested methodology.

Patent
07 Mar 2008
TL;DR: In this article, an augmented reality system provides enhanced situational information to personnel located within an environment by using a tracking system that obtains viewpoint information corresponding to a real-time view of the environment.
Abstract: An augmented reality system provides enhanced situational information to personnel located within an environment. A tracking system obtains viewpoint information corresponding to a real-time view of said environment. A processing system receives information from one or more sensors. Information includes sensor location information and status information about the environment and personnel therein. The processing system generates graphics using the sensor location information and the viewpoint information. Graphics include visual representations of said status information. A display displays the generated graphics on a display at a supervisor station that is outside of said environment such that graphics are superimposed on the real-time view.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the situation awareness of air traffic controller (ATCO) students, including the temporal aspect of SA, was measured by means of their visual information acquisition during simulator training.
Abstract: The situation awareness (SA) of air traffic controller (ATCO) students, including the temporal aspect of SA, was measured by means of their visual information acquisition during simulator training. The measurements were defined both at an individual level and at a team level. SA and team SA (TSA) were measured by means of eye-movement data: first, the extent to which individual ATCOs focused or distributed their visual attention in the interface; second, the extent to which ATCO teams were actively involved in planning tasks. Planning was measured based on how ATCO teams attended to tactical and strategic monitoring tasks. This enabled process-oriented measurements of SA and TSA that predicted aspects of performance and were sensitive to situational changes.

01 May 2008
TL;DR: This report fully defines the attributes and context of "Layered Sensing" and describes its implications for driving AFRL research.
Abstract: : The changing face of warfare and it migration from large state-on-state conflicts to Irregular Warfare is dramatically changing the requirements laid down by the Department of Defense for acquiring and disseminating information. Creating "Situational Awareness" and information for all levels of decision makers from the President to the Marine on the ground will require significant changes. In response, The Air Force Research Laboratory has established an urgent and focused long-term strategy to improve Situational Awareness technologies. This document helps to outline that strategy by defining the context of a new technology construct called "Layered Sensing." This report fully defines the attributes and context of "Layered Sensing" and describes its implications for driving AFRL research. AFRL recognizes that this document represents a living, evolving construct. This document will be periodically reviewed, revised, and re-released as the concept evolves.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A distributed theory of situation awareness based upon the analysis of interactions between agents (both human and non-human) in an Airborne Warning and Control System (Boeing E3D Sentry) shows how the location and nature of distributed situation awareness changes across agents with regard to the phase of operation/air battle.
Abstract: This paper applies a distributed theory of situation awareness based upon the analysis of interactions between agents (both human and non-human) in an Airborne Warning and Control System (Boeing E3D Sentry). The basic tenet of this approach is that agents within a system each hold their own component(s) of situation awareness, which may be very different from, but compatible with, other agent’s view of the situation. However, it is argued that it is not always necessary to have complete sharing of this awareness, as different system agents have different purposes. Situation awareness is regarded as a dynamic and collaborative process that binds agents together on tasks on a moment-by-moment basis. Situation awareness is conceptualised as residing at a system, not an individual level. Data were collected from crew-members in theE3D during a series of simulated air battles. These data pertained to task structure, communications between the crew and the collection and analysis of crew actions at critical decision points. All phases of operations were considered. From these data propositional networks were developed in which key knowledge objects were identified. Analysis of these networks clearly shows how the location and nature of distributed situation awareness changes across agents with regard to the phase of operation/air battle.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
26 Sep 2008
TL;DR: A user study conceptualises knowledge to be implemented in a rule-based application aiming at supporting situation awareness and identifies a number of identified rules emerging from organisational factors, group thinking and individual experience.
Abstract: In maritime surveillance, supporting operatorspsila situation awareness is a very important issue for enabling the possibility to detect anomalous behaviour We present a user study which conceptualises knowledge to be implemented in a rule-based application aiming at supporting situation awareness Participatory observations were used as a method for extracting operatorspsila knowledge The result of the user study is in the form of a number of identified rules emerging from organisational factors, group thinking and individual experience A description of the rule-based prototype is presented a long with the result from the user study This is also discussed together with the applicability of rule based systems and how to support situation awareness

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article presents a principled, theoretical basis for designing interface tools that help users recover and maintain situation awareness in dynamic operational tasks, and presents a framework for understanding the processes of interruption recovery during dynamic tasks within the broader context of interrupts recovery generally.
Abstract: Dynamic operational tasks, such as airspace monitoring and civil emergency operations, require maintaining awareness of changing situations, in part by detecting and interpreting significant changes. Poor change detection ability makes this maintenance difficult enough while monitoring a situation display uninterrupted, but multitasking and interruptions increase the difficulty because the situation can change during the interruptions. Yet little research has addressed the need for better interface tools to help users detect and interpret changes, either to maintain situation awareness or to recover it following interruptions. The objective of this article is to present a principled, theoretical basis for designing interface tools that help users recover and maintain situation awareness in dynamic operational tasks. First, we present a framework for understanding the processes of interruption recovery during dynamic tasks within the broader context of interruption recovery generally. Then we briefly review a series of experiments, primarily from our own laboratory, from which we derive four design principles. Last, we contrast a number of interface designs in terms of the principles. Consideration of the four principles should facilitate the design of more effective tools to help users get back up to speed for these important and high-risk tasks.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
16 Jan 2008
TL;DR: This research has shown that given even minimal basis for understanding when the operator should and should not trust the agent recommendations allows operators to make better AUDs, to have better situation awareness on the critical issues associated with automation error, and to establish better trust in intelligent agents.
Abstract: Motivation - To investigate ways to support human-automation teams with real-world, imperfect automation where many system failures are the result of systematic failure.Research approach - An experimental approach was used to investigate how variance in agent reliability may influence human's trust and subsequent reliance on agent's decision aids. Sixty command and control (C2) teams, each consisting of a human operator and two cognitive agents, were asked to detect and respond to battlefield threats in six ten-minute scenarios. At the end of each scenario, participants completed the SAGAT queries, followed by the NASA TLX queries.Findings/Design - Results revealed that teams with experienced human operators accepted significantly less inappropriate recommendations from agents than teams with inexperienced operators. More importantly, the knowledge of agent's reliability and the ratio of unreliable tasks have significant effects on human's trust, as manifested in both team performance and human operators' rectification of inappropriate recommendations from agents.Originality/Value - It represents an important step toward uncovering the nature of human trust in human-agent collaboration.Take away message - This research has shown that given even minimal basis for understanding when the operator should and should not trust the agent recommendations allows operators to make better AUDs, to have better situation awareness on the critical issues associated with automation error, and to establish better trust in intelligent agents.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study applied the concepts of the Shewhart control chart to design a pre-alarm system for the nuclear power plant control room, and indicated that participants had lower mental workload, but equal SA, when monitoring the system with either type of pre- alarm designs.

Proceedings Article
26 Sep 2008
TL;DR: This work discusses the generalized framework of FuSIA as well as its application in cyber intrusion projection, and presents threat projection algorithms via analyzing capability and opportunity of ongoing attacks.
Abstract: Recent cyber security research has focused on providing a situation awareness of computer networks by identifying incoming attacks. FuSIA: Future Situation and Impact Awareness seeks to extend this situation awareness via estimating plausible futures of ongoing attacks. Plausible futures, derived based on current progress of attacks, are projected situations that computer security analysts may use to determine appropriate actions for proactive defense. This work discusses the generalized framework of FuSIA as well as its application in cyber intrusion projection. FuSIA adopts application specific contextual information as well as provides flexibility by accommodating multiple projection algorithms. In particular, this paper presents threat projection algorithms via analyzing capability and opportunity of ongoing attacks. Plausibility scores derived from these algorithms are then combined based on Dempster-Shafer theory to provide a final fused estimate of plausible futures.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
02 Sep 2008
TL;DR: An experiment was conducted in a synthetic task environment, in which the effect of heading-up and north-up displays on search and rescue performance of first responders was examined, and if adding the tactile display improves performance.
Abstract: Mobile information systems aid first responders in their tasks. Support is often based on mobile maps. People have different preferences for map orientations (heading-up or north-up), but map orientations also have different advantages and disadvantages. In general north-up maps are good for building up situation awareness and heading-up maps are better for navigational tasks. Because of heavily loaded visual modalities, we expect that tactile waypoint information can enhance navigation speed and situation awareness. In this paper we describe an experiment conducted in a synthetic task environment, in which we examined the effect of heading-up and north-up displays on search and rescue performance of first responders, and if adding the tactile display improves performance.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work approaches the problem by considering the possible abnormal events as diseases, thus making it possible to diagnose them through their symptoms, namely, their side effects, and shows how they are included in the blueprint of an intrusion detection system.
Abstract: A wireless sensor network should be able to operate for long periods of time with little or no external management. There is a requirement for this autonomy: the sensor nodes must be able to configure themselves in the presence of adverse situations. Therefore, the nodes should make use of situation awareness mechanisms to determine the existence of abnormal events in their surroundings. This work approaches the problem by considering the possible abnormal events as diseases, thus making it possible to diagnose them through their symptoms, namely, their side effects. Considering these awareness mechanisms as a foundation for high-level monitoring services, this article also shows how these mechanisms are included in the blueprint of an intrusion detection system.

Dissertation
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: Situation awareness (SA) is the term that is used within human factors circles to describe the level of awareness that operators have of the situation that they are engaged in; it focuses on how operators develop and maintain a sufficient understanding of "what is going on" in order to achieve success in task performance as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Having an accurate understanding of what is going on is a key commodity for teams working within military systems. ‘Situation awareness’ (SA) is the term that is used within human factors circles to describe the level of awareness that operators have of the situation that they are engaged in; it focuses on how operators develop and maintain a sufficient understanding of ‘what is going on’ in order to achieve success in task performance. Over the past two decades, the construct has become a fundamental theme within the areas of system design and evaluation and has received considerable attention from the human factors research community. Despite this, there is still considerable debate over how SA operates in complex collaborative systems and how SA achievement and maintenance is best supported through system, procedure and interface design. This book focuses on the recently developed concept of distributed situation awareness, which takes a systems perspective on the concept and moves the focus on situation awareness out of the heads of individual operators and on to the overall joint cognitive system consisting of human and technological agents. Situation awareness is viewed as an emergent property of collaborative systems, something that resides in the interaction between elements of the system and not in the heads of individual operators working in that system. The first part of the book presents a comprehensive review and critique of existing SA theory and measurement approaches, following which a novel model for complex collaborative systems, the distributed SA model, and a new modelling procedure, the propositional network approach, are outlined and demonstrated. The next part focuses on real-world applications of the model and modelling procedure, and presents four case studies undertaken in the land warfare, multinational warfare and energy distribution domains. Each case study is described in terms of the domain in question, the methodology employed, and the findings derived in relation to situation awareness theory. The third and final part of the book then concentrates on theoretical development, and uses the academic literature and the findings from the case study applications to validate and extend the distributed SA model described at the beginning of the book. In closing, the utility of the distributed SA model and modeling procedure are outlined and a series of initial guidelines for supporting distributed SA through system design are articulated. [Book Synopsis]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work focuses on situation awareness; a more holistic variant of context awareness where situations are regarded as logically aggregated contexts, and proposes the use of Fuzzy Logic theory with the purpose of determining and reasoning about the current situation of the involved user.
Abstract: Context awareness is viewed as one of the most important aspects in the emerging pervasive computing paradigm. We focus our work on situation awareness; a more holistic variant of context awareness where situations are regarded as logically aggregated contexts. One important problem that arises in such systems is the imperfect observations (e.g., sensor readings) that lead to the estimation of the current context of the user. Hence, the knowledge upon which the context / situation aware paradigm is built is rather vague. To deal with this shortcoming, we propose the use of Fuzzy Logic theory with the purpose of determining (inferring) and reasoning about the current situation of the involved user. We elaborate on the architectural model that enables the system to assume actions autonomously according to previous user reactions and current situation. The captured, imperfect contextual information is matched against pre-developed ontologies in order to approximately infer the current situation of the user. Finally, we present a series of experimental results that provide evidence of the flexible, efficient nature of the proposed situation awareness architecture.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
26 May 2008
TL;DR: An overview of the satellite-extended-vessel traffic service (SEV) system for in-situ and earth observation (EO) data association for cognitive data correlation concept shows the benefits brought to the resulting maritime recognised picture (RMP) in supporting decision making and situation awareness applications.
Abstract: The integration of current traffic monitoring operational systems in the field of maritime surveillance is widely acknowledged as a key requirement for borders control and illegal trafficking prevention. In this paper, an overview of the satellite-extended-vessel traffic service (SEV) system for in-situ and earth observation (EO) data association is presented. The description of the cognitive data correlation concept shows the benefits brought to the resulting maritime recognised picture (RMP) in supporting decision making and situation awareness applications.

Journal IssueDOI
TL;DR: It is shown how a nominal model of an urban environment obtained by aerial surveillance, is used to generate strategies for exploration and the construction of a radio signal strength map that can be used to plan multi-robot tasks, and also serve as useful perceptual information.
Abstract: In this paper, we present an experimental study of strategies for maintaining end-to-end communication links for tasks such as surveillance, reconnaissance, and target search and identification, where team connectivity is required for situational awareness. Our main contributions are threefold: (a) We present the construction of a radio signal strength map that can be used to plan multi-robot tasks, and also serve as useful perceptual information. We show how a nominal model of an urban environment obtained by aerial surveillance, is used to generate strategies for exploration. (b) We present reactive controllers for communication link maintenance; and (c) we consider the differences between monitoring signal strength versus data throughput. Experimental results, obtained using our multi-robot testbed in three representative urban environments are presented with each of our main contributions. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
09 Jul 2008
TL;DR: A novel system that supports the acquisition of situation awareness and the involvement of the user in the anomaly detection process using two layers of interactive visualizations based on a visual analytics process model.
Abstract: The surveillance of large sea areas often generates huge amounts of multidimensional data. Exploring, analyzing and finding anomalous behavior within this data is a complex task. Confident decisions upon the abnormality of a particular vessel behavior require a certain level of situation awareness that may be difficult to achieve when the operator is overloaded by the available information. Based on a visual analytics process model, we present a novel system that supports the acquisition of situation awareness and the involvement of the user in the anomaly detection process using two layers of interactive visualizations. The system uses an interactive data mining module that supports the insertion of the user's knowledge and experience in the creation, validation and continuous update of the normal model of the environment.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a theoretical analysis of using wave variables to enhance a collision-avoidance system for visual and haptic uninhabited aerial vehicle teleoperation with time delay is presented.
Abstract: In the teleoperation of an uninhabited aerial vehicle, haptic feedback can be used to provide useful information through the sense of touch. Although this can improve performance and enhance situation awareness, time delays caused by signal transmission generally induce control problems with haptic feedback, causing unsafe operations. Wave variables have been suggested to cope with the control problems in bilateral human-machine systems with time delay. Very little has been reported, however, on effects related to human control activity and workload when using wave variables. This paper describes a theoretical analysis of using wave variables to enhance a collision-avoidance system for visual and haptic uninhabited aerial vehicle teleoperation with time delay. An experiment was conducted to evaluate its effectiveness regarding operator performance, control activity, workload, and the safety of operation. Results indicate that wave variables are indeed successful in improving human performance. The number of collisions, operator control activity, and workload all decreased. Whereas performance and control activity were equivalent to the situation of haptic feedback without time delay, workload remained higher.

01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the field of human-robot interaction and augmented reality, investigates the potential avenues for creating natural humanrobot collaboration through spatial dialogue utilizing AR, and proposes a holistic architectural design for human-robotic collaboration.
Abstract: NASA's vision for space exploration stresses the cultivation of human-robotic systems. Similar systems are also envisaged for a variety of hazardous earthbound applications such as urban search and rescue. Recent research has pointed out that to reduce human workload, costs, fatigue driven error and risk, intelligent robotic systems will need to be a significant part of mission design. However, little attention has been paid to joint human-robot teams. Making human-robot collaboration natural and efficient is crucial. In particular, grounding, situational awareness, a common frame of reference and spatial referencing are vital in effective communication and collaboration. Augmented Reality (AR), the overlaying of computer graphics onto the real worldview, can provide the necessary means for a human-robotic system to fulfill these requirements for effective collaboration. This article reviews the field of human-robot interaction and augmented reality, investigates the potential avenues for creating natural human-robot collaboration through spatial dialogue utilizing AR and proposes a holistic architectural design for human-robot collaboration.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The proposed model, employing the belief, desire, intention (BDI) agent framework, is capable of generating plans in real time, supporting both the reactive and the proactive decision-making, and maintaining situation awareness in human language such as logic.
Abstract: This paper presents a novel software agent model to replace the partial decision-making function of a human. The proposed model, employing the belief, desire, intention (BDI) agent framework, is capable of (1) generating plans in real time, (2) supporting both the reactive and the proactive decision-making, (3) maintaining situation awareness in human language such as logic, and (4) changing the commitment strategy adaptive to historical performance. In this paper, the proposed model has been developed in the context of the human operator who is responsible for error detection and recovery in a complex automated manufacturing system. A distributed computing platform has been used to integrate an agent (implemented in JACK), real human, and the environment (Arena simulation software).