Supporting teamwork in hybrid multi-team systems

Abstract Multi-level human-autonomy teaming in a distributed mission context consists of multiple manned and unmanned systems that require flexible decision making authority. We introduce the notion of ‘hybrid multi-team systems’ to refer to multiple teams consisting of n-number of humans and n-number of semi-autonomous agents having interdependence relationships with each other. Based on the coactive design approach, we have developed a set of design patterns that provide team members with real-time information on interdependencies and can therefore support observability, predictability and directability of interdependencies in a hybrid team. We demonstrate the viability of the design patterns for providing observability, predictability and directability for several hybrid teams of humans and semi-autonomous agents.