Using Distributed Simulation to Investigate Human-Autonomy Teaming

This paper describes the use of distributed simulation within and between organizations to investigate Human-Autonomy Teaming (HAT) with three simulations, showing a progression from integrating automation into a flight following ground station, increased HAT functionality for the ground station, and migration of the autonomy and HAT functionality into the flight deck. The multi-site distributed nature of the final simulation provided high efficiency by allowing researchers to work in their own labs for a long period of data collection. It also provided high fidelity by enabling access to a flight deck environment. Also, it managed costs by taking advantage of facilities and personnel in different locations over a multi-week simulation. Using these simulations, HAT factors were found to enhance ground station and flight deck environments. Conditions with HAT features were preferred by simulation participants to conditions without. Subjective and objective measures of workload were lower with HAT features. These results indicate that future investigations into aircraft support would benefit from the addition of HAT factors and the use of distributed simulation.