Experimental Study of Automation to Support Time-Critical Replanning Decisions

An experimental study was performed on degrees of automation to support time-critical decision-making in complex environments, specifically the in-flight replanning task. Fourteen subjects interacted with a part-task military combat simulation of the in-flight replanning task. Subjects modified a two-dimensional route through waypoint manipulations on a computer monitor, in response to a sudden change in the simulated flight environment. The study focused on determining the relationships between automation assistance, time pressures, and information elements as inputs, and the resulting decision performance as outputs. In addition to a baseline case without automation (None) , subjects received one of three types of route-assistance automation, which provided a static route suggestion in response to the environmental change. The route-assistance automation either reduced hazard exposure (Hazard), ensured the satisfaction of fuel and time-on-target constraints (Constraint), or combined the two (Full). The experiment exposed subjects to four time-pressured conditions 20, 28, 40, and 55 seconds and to a condition without time pressure.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH is the author of 'Experimental Study of Automation to Support Time-Critical Replanning Decisions', published 2002 under ISBN 9781423508076 and ISBN 1423508076.