Soldier –Robot Teams: Six Years of Research

Abstract

US Army researchers and support contractors are involved in a multi-year effort to understand the impact of human-robot interaction (HRI) and teaming for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) in future and current Army conflicts. The purpose of this paper is to summarize human–robotic principles derived from these programs. The principles cover both problems and solutions evaluated over the more than six years of experimentation. We discuss the implications of Soldier teaming, survivability, multitasking, automation and the importance of individual differences for HRI. Mitigation strategies related to individual differences and training regimens are discussed. We also explicate results related to multimodal interfaces and adaptive systems.