Appropriately Representing Military Tasks for Human-Machine Teaming Research

The use of simulation has become a popular way to develop knowledge and skills in aviation, medicine, and several other domains. Given the promise of human-robot teaming in many of these same contexts, the amount of research in human-autonomy teaming has increased over the last decade. The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), for example, has developed several testbeds to explore human-autonomy teaming in and out of the laboratory. Fidelity requirements have been carefully established in order to assess important factors in line with the goals of the research. This paper describes how appropriate fidelity is established across a range of human-autonomy research objectives. We provide descriptions of testbeds ranging from robots in the laboratory to higher-fidelity flight simulations and real-world driving. We conclude with a description and guideline for selecting appropriate levels of fidelity given a research objective in human-machine teaming research.