Assured Autonomy and Control Centers

Abstract

This chapter discusses the science goal for products and services that are autonomous with no human intervention. Rather than assured autonomous systems acting alone, innovation goal researchers want to support supervised autonomy by way of control panels and control centers (sometimes described as human-in-the-loop or humans-on-the-loop), in which humans operate highly automated devices and systems. The combined strategy could be to have science goal algorithms provide highly automated features, with user interface designs that support human control and oversight. This combined strategy is in use in many NASA, industrial, utility, military, and air traffic control centers, where rich forms of AI are used to optimize performance, but the operators have a clear mental model of what will happen next. Predictable behavior from machines is highly valued by human operators.