Human–Autonomy Teaming: A Review and Analysis of the Empirical Literature

By Thomas A. O'Neill, Nathan J. Mcneese, Amy Barron, Beau G. Schelble. Hum. Factors, 2020

528 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Objective We define human–autonomy teaming and offer a synthesis of the existing empirical research on the topic. Specifically, we identify the research environments, dependent variables, themes representing the key findings, and critical future research directions. Background Whereas a burgeoning literature on high-performance teamwork identifies the factors critical to success, much less is known about how human–autonomy teams (HATs) achieve success. Human–autonomy teamwork involves humans working interdependently toward a common goal along with autonomous agents. Autonomous agents involve a degree of self-government and self-directed behavior (agency), and autonomous agents take on a unique role or set of tasks and work interdependently with human team members to achieve a shared objective. Method We searched the literature on human–autonomy teaming. To meet our criteria for inclusion, the paper needed to involve empirical research and meet our definition of human–autonomy teaming. We found 76 articles that met our criteria for inclusion. Results We report on research environments and we find that the key independent variables involve autonomous agent characteristics, team composition, task characteristics, human individual differences, training, and communication. We identify themes for each of these and discuss the future research needs. Conclusion There are areas where research findings are clear and consistent, but there are many opportunities for future research. Particularly important will be research that identifies mechanisms linking team input to team output variables.

Subfields: Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d23a936b0d26bbc6bd0a61891ab4e5ef1798f7a2

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Social Psychology

1. Ewart J. de Visser
2. Yi-Ching Lee
3. Tyler H. Shaw
4. Eva Wiese
5. Spencer Kohn

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Ewart J. de Visser
2. Wei Xu
3. Marvin J. Dainoff
4. Zaifeng Gao
5. Liezhong Ge

Citations in the corpus

• Transitioning to Human Interaction with AI Systems: New Challenges and Opportunities for HCI Professionals to Enable Human-Centered AI (2021, background): “…a machine can evolve from an assistive tool that primarily supports human operations to a potential collaborative teammate of a team with a human operator, playing the dual roles of “ assistive tool þ collaborative teammate ” (e.g., Brill et al., 2018; Lyons et al., 2018; O ’ Neill et al., 2020).”
• Measurement of Trust in Automation: A Narrative Review and Reference Guide (2021, result): “This interaction stands in contrast with the human-autonomy team, which focuses on teams of humans and autonomous agents which have distinct roles and interdependence in activities and outcomes (O’Neill et al., 2020).”