Syllabus

Advanced Humans and Autonomy

(3 credit hours)

Instructor: Amy Pritchett, Associate Professor AE/ISyE.

Main office: Guggenheim 448 (yes, the name plate says ‘The Library’)

Telephone: 404-894-0199

Email:

Pre-Requisites: AE3515 “Systems Dynamics and Automatic Control” or <XXX new course numbers and titles here, for both system dynamics course and automatic controls course in the new course>. Note too, you cannot get credit for this course if you have already taken AE45XX “Introduction to Humans and Autonomy” for credit.

References: Lectures notes will be provided on T-Square. These are built on the following references, which you are also expected to read, as will be indicated in the relevant homework:

  • Defense Sciences Board review of ‘Autonomy’
  • Kuchar, J.K. Methodology for alerting-system performance evaluation, Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, vol.19 no.2 (438-444), 1996.
  • Sorkin, R.D. and Woods, D.D. Systems with Human Monitors: A Signal Detection Analysis., Human-Computer Interaction, 1985, Vol. 1 Issue 1, p49
  • Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases Amos Tversky; Daniel Kahneman, Science, New Series, Vol. 185, No. 4157. (Sep. 27, 1974), pp. 1124-1131.
  • A.N. Bisantz and A.R. Pritchett, article printed in Human Factors.
  • Drake, A.W. and Keeney, R.L. Decision Analysis, selections from course lecture notes. (pp. 1.4-1.11, 5.5-5.14, 6.4-6.9, 7.4-7.14, 9.4-9.9)
  • Orasanu, J. and Connolly, T. The re-invention of decision making, Decision makingin action: Models and methods, eds. G. A. Klein, J. Orasanu, R. Calderwood, & C. E. Zsambok, Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 3-20, 1993.
  • Ockerman, J.J. and Pritchett, A.R, A Review and Reappraisal of Task Guidance: Aiding Workers in Procedure Following, International Journal of Cognitive Ergonomics, 2000, Vol. 4, No. 3, Pages 191-212
  • Hess, R.A. Feedback control models – Manual control and tracking, Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2nd edition, ed. G. Salvendy, pp. 1249-1294, John Wiley: New York, 1997.
  • Mitchell, D. G. et al “Evolution, Revolution, and Challenges of Handling Qualities”, Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, Vol. 27, No. 1, 2004.
  • Federal Aviation Administration, “Flight Test Guide for Certification of Transport Category Aircraft,” Advisory Circular 25-7A. Note: Only Appendix 7 addresses handling qualities – don’t print the whole document! Similar documents are available for other category aircraft

Course Objectives:

(1)Develop a deep knowledge of the theoretical basis for many of the functions performed by humans and automation in current and potential-future systems.

(2)Understand how humans and automation can perform those functions, with special focus on functions not covered elsewhere in the AE curriculum.

(3)Understand how humans and automation interact when performing these functions, to the extent that you can understand fundamental trade-offs in the decision ‘to automate, or not to automate, that is the question...’

These goals will require not just more knowledge, but also the ability to analyze situations for the context dependencies that will drive both the requirements on human and autonomous system behavior and the nature of interaction between human and autonomous system.

Collaboration and the Honor Code: During in-lecture exercises and when starting your homeworks you are welcome – even encouraged – to discuss the concepts amongst yourselves to foster better learning. You are free to reference old tests, homework, projects or other coursework if you need even more references; note that I will be making up new quizzes and exams that are not in “word”. Except for some cases where I may indicate that an assignment must be done individually, you are welcome to work in groups as long as everyone in the group thoroughly understands what is going on. However, all joint work must be cited and just copying directly from anyone else’s homework without mutual understanding and comprehension is specifically NOT acceptable and will be considered a violation of the GT Academic Honor Code and dealt with accordingly. Likewise, the quizzes and final exam are expected to be demonstrations solely of your own abilities. For any questions involving these or any other Academic Honor Code issues, please consult me or

Grades: (8803)

Homeworks (roughly once every 1½ weeks) – 35%

Project (interim deliverables throughout semester) – 30%

Mid-terms (2) – 10% each, 20% total

Final exam during finals week – 15%

Project Specification (Representative Example)

For January 29: Read Special Notice 13-SN-0005 on “Basic Research Challenges in the Science of Autonomy.” Email with a notice of intent to submit. This notice should identify: (1) team members and their areas of expertise, noting that you may submit individually or in teams. Having a good team will be a competitive advantage BUT teaming arrangements should broaden and diversify the capabilities of the proposed research, i.e. teams should not be people all from the same lab and background. (2) which research thrust you intend to submit to. (3) a list of 5 key references that will be cited in the white paper due February 14: these should be technical but should be more review papers than papers on isolated methods or studies

.

For February 14: White paper as per the submission guidelines

For March 12: One page outline of technical part of full report, with full prose on the research objectives in bullet form

For March 28: Topic sentence outline of technical part of full report + all administrative stuff required for a proposal. See the proposal writing requirements listed at and provide budget and routing sheet so that your contracting officer can log the proposal

For April 25: Full proposals ready for submission, following all ONR and OSP guidelines for content, coverpage, page limits, etc.

Questions may be directed to the relevant program officer, , and a FAQ will be posted as appropriate.

Schedule of Topics:

Week 1: Introduction

Definition of key measures of sensing

Discussion of human sensing, contrasting with machine sensing

Week 2:Discussion of how human attention drives human sensing

Quantitative modeling of human attention based on salience and expectation

Week 3:Review of relevant probability (probability/cumulative density functions)

Derivation of system operating curve

‘Optimal’ thresholds for alerting systems

Week 4:Human judgment – common biases,

Linear models of ecological behavior (e.g., Brunswick’s Lens Model)

Week 5:Machine algorithms for filtering based on time average and on redundant sensors

MID-TERM 1 (weeks 1-5)

Week 6:Model based observers, including optimal Kalman filter

Week 7:Decision making – strict definition as selection between options

Decision analysis – decision trees

Week 8:Naturalistic decision making in complex, time-stressed operating environments

Contextual control

Week 9:Planning as pre-decision making

Planning as procedures, and concerns with procedure following

Week 10:Continuous methods for path planning (e.g., proportional navigation)

Discrete methods for path planning (e.g., A* algorithm)

Week 11:SPRING BREAK

Week 12:MID-TERM 2 (weeks 1-10)

Manual control – human adaptation, Cross-over model

Week 13:Handling qualities

Sensitivity to adverse aircraft-pilot coupling

Week 14:Modeling operator’s understanding of automation as a finite state machine

Week 15:Re-cap of choices of functions to automate

Implications for human-automation interaction

Week 16:Relating course topics to current-day operational issues

Finals weekFINAL EXAM (integrates topics from weeks 1-16)