SHADE (Shared Awareness in Denied Environments): A Decision Support Tool for Mixed-Initiative Teams

SSCI and ASU (Prof. Nancy Cooke) propose to develop SHADE (Shared Awareness in Denied Environments) - a comprehensive decision support tool which will facilitate smooth mission execution under information degradation and losses in mixed initiative teams (MIT) involving collaborating autonomous vehicles. In Phase I we propose to perform initial development, integration and testing of the SHADE technology whose role is to maintain Shared Situational Awareness within the MIT through suitable monitoring of the Quality of Information (QoI) of sensed and communicated signals, effective prediction of mission states and parameters, and local replanning for information enrichment to mitigate the effects of information losses. The proposed SHADE approach helps keeping the operator in the loop during communication losses, and maintains the mission integrity through the generation of efficient alternate plans to accommodate lost, delayed or degraded information. Phase I work will include initial development of requirements and metrics and SHADE algorithms, initial simulation testing, and plans for experimental testing in a human factors lab at ASU in Phase II. Specific Phase I tasks include: (i) Develop SHADE requirements and metrics; (ii) Develop SHADE algorithms; (iii) Evaluate SHADE performance through simulation testing; and (iv) Develop experimental plans for Phase II.