Coactive DesignWhy Interdependence Must Shape Autonomy

Matthew Johnsonmjohnson@ihmc.us

Florida Institute forHuman and Machine Cognition

Pensacola, FL

TU Delft

December 15, 2010

Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition

Motivation

Problem Statement

When designing sophisticated human-agent systems, what is the critical design feature of an agent or robot?

Problem Statement

Autonomy

When designing sophisticated human-agent systems, what is the critical design feature of an agent or robot?

What is Autonomy?

Autonomy has two basic senses:

self-sufficiency, the capability of an entity to take care of itself.

self-directedness, or freedom from outside control.

Current Approaches• Function Allocation (Fitts)

– characterize the general strengths and weaknesses of humans and machines• Supervisory Control (Sheridan)

– a human oversees one or more autonomous systems, statically allocating tasks to them.• Adjustable Autonomy (Dorais)

– the ability of autonomous systems to operate with dynamically varying levels of independence• Sliding Autonomy (Dias)

– Same as adjustable autonomy• Adaptive Automation (Sheridan)

– the system must decide at runtime which functions to automate and to what extent• Flexible autonomy (Technology horizons)

– the degree of autonomous control that the system is allowed to take on, and in which this degree of autonomy can be varied from essentially none to near or complete autonomy

• Mixed-initiative interaction (Allen)– a flexible interaction strategy, where each agent can contribute to the task what it does best

• Collaborative Control (Fong) – allows robots to benefit from human assistance during perception and cognition, and not just planning and

command generation

Self Sufficiency

Self Directedness

However…

Automated assistance of whatever kind does not simply enhance our ability to perform the task: it changes the nature of the task itself1.

Many functions in complex systems are interdependent

1. D. A. Norman, "How might people interact with agents?," in Software Agents, J. M. Bradshaw, Ed. Cambridge, MA: The AAAI Press/The MIT Press, 1997, pp. 49-55 (see also How might people interact with robots? http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/how_might_humans_int.html).

AutonomyAutonomy

Problem Statement

Interdependence

When designing sophisticated human-agent systems, what is the critical design feature of an agent or robot?

Coactive Design

In sophisticated human-agent systems,the underlying interdependence of joint

activityis the critical design feature.

Disclaimer:The authors of this work are in no way suggesting autonomy is unimportant or not of value. If you work in the area of autonomy you should in no way feel threatened or troubled by the following discussion. If at any time you feel uncomfortable, please inform the speaker and he will pause and reassure you that autonomy is important and a foundational component to all robotic systems.

Coactive Design

In sophisticated human-agent systems,the underlying interdependence of joint

activityis the critical design feature.

Dependence vs. Interdependence

In sophisticated human-agent systems,the underlying interdependence of joint activity

is the critical design feature.

Coactive Design

Dependent Independent Interdependent

1997 2002

2008

?

In sophisticated human-agent systems,the underlying interdependence of joint activity

is the critical design feature.

1995

Coactive Design

Dependent Independent Interdependent

What does coactive mean?

Awareness of

Consideration for

Capability to support

What does coactive mean?

Awareness of

Consideration for

Capability to support

…Joint Activity

What does coactive mean?

Awareness of

Consideration for

Capability to support

…Joint Activity

What does coactive mean?

Awareness of

Consideration for

Capability to support

…Joint Activity

Autonomy Perspective

Self-sufficiency

Sel

f-dire

cted

ness

Capability to support

Interdependence

Coactive Perspective

Self-sufficiency

Sel

f-dire

cted

ness

Current Challenges

Self-sufficiency

Sel

f-dire

cted

ness

Burden

Current Challenges

Over-Trusted

Self-sufficiency

Sel

f-dire

cted

ness

Burden

Current Challenges

Over-Trusted

Self-sufficiency

Sel

f-dire

cted

ness

Burden Under-Utilized

Current Challenges

Over-Trusted

Self-sufficiency

Sel

f-dire

cted

ness

Burden Under-Utilized

Opaque

Low to Moderate autonomy – situation awareness

Moderate to High autonomy- understanding decisions

Coactive Perspective

Self-sufficiency

Sel

f-dire

cted

ness

Burden

Opaque

Transparency

Feedback

Opaque

Capability to support

Interdependence

Hypothesis• In human-agent systems engaged in joint activity, the benefits of

higher levels of autonomy cannot be realized without addressing interdependence through coordination.

OverTrusted

Self-sufficiency

Sel

f-dire

cted

ness

Burden UnderUtilized

Opaque

Block World for Teams (BW4T)

Defining “Higher Levels” of Autonomy

OverTrusted

Self-sufficiency

Sel

f-dire

cted

ness

Burden UnderUtilized

Opaque

• Did burden decrease?• Did opacity increase?• Was there an inflection point?• Did performance decrease with increasing autonomy?• What does this mean?

1 2 3 4640660680700720740760780800820

Average time to complete task vs. Autonomy Level

Autonomy Level (1=low, 4=high)

Tim

e to

com

plet

e ta

sk

(in s

econ

ds)

Prediction Results

team 1 -low team 1 - high team 2 - low team 2 - high0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%

4-Person TeamsOpen Communication

softhard

Block World for Teams (BW4T)

1a1%

1b11%

2a12%

2b14%

2d15%

39%

424%

6a2%

6b4%

6c9%

Communication in support of

High Interdependence1a1%

1b25%

2a3%

2b7%2d

7%

448%

55%

6a1%

6b1%

6c1%

Communication in support of

Low Interdependence

Future Directions• Does addressing interdependence improve

performance?• How does interdependence effect the results?• How do different ways to address

interdependence effect performance?• How does team size effect the result?• Does this apply to other domains?• How to we measure to costs and benefits?

We no longer look at the problem as simply trying to make agents more autonomous, but, in addition, we strive to make them more capable of being interdependent.

Coactive Design

Thank You! … Questions?

Common IssuesHuman Needs Robot Needs

What is the robot doing? Mutual Transparency What is the intent of the human?

Why did the robot do that?

Mutual Explainability What did the human want me to learn?

What is the robot going to do next?

Mutual Predictability What does the human need from me?

Can we make the robot do what we need?

Mutual Directability Can the human provide help?

Does use of autonomy add value?

Mutual Cost Benefit Management

Will my actions provide value to the human?