Multi-Modal Control for Automatic Vehicle Management Systems

""Optionally Piloted Vehicles" contain a human operator but enable him/her to decide when and whether to take control any given function. The transfer of control problem is the central challenge for OPVs, but we see this as a delegation issue which can beaddressed by the methods that succeed in human-human task delegation and coordination. Together with Honeywell, SIFT has pioneered a flexible architecture for delegation between hu-mans and automation-a "tasking interface" based on a sports Playbookmetaphor. To date, however, no work has addressed real-time, human immersive control, or machine-to-human task transfers with the Playbook. Cur-rent Playbook approaches to ensure provably correct plans (e.g. MACBeth) are geared toward ground-basedmission planning and are not suitable for OPVs. Hence, our objective will be to adapt the Playbook architecture to provide (1) a protocol for variable initiative task delegation, and (2) an approach to ensuring provable stability from any mix of human andmachine actions, including transfer actions themselves, which takes into account human workload and situation awareness. In Phase I, together with support from Honeywell, we will develop our approach and test it by hand walkthroughs of a small number ofrepresentative, but stressful, Challenge Cases. Applicability to any variable initiative control environment where human involvement is resource constrained including-- manned and unmanned avia