Checklists for Human-Robot Collaboration during Space Operations

Abstract

We have developed a user interface that assists a human and a robot in maintaining a shared understanding of situation while performing tasks jointly. This interface is based on the checklist artifact. Just as human teams use such artifacts to coordinate and remind themselves of ongoing activities and to document what was done for later inspection, we propose that humans and robots benefit from jointly manipulating a computer-based checklist during traded control. To evaluate this proposal, we developed user interface software for an intelligent robotic control architecture. We use this software to interact with an automated robot during traded control tasks for experimentation and maintenance operations during space exploration. The results of our evaluation are reported in this paper.