Assessing multimodal interactions with mixed-initiative teams

Abstract

The state-of-the-art in robotics is advancing to support the warfighters’ ability to project force and increase their reach across a variety of future missions. Seamless integration of robots with the warfighter will require advancing interfaces from teleoperation to collaboration. The current approach to meeting this requirement is to include human-to-human communication capabilities in tomorrow’s robots using multimodal communication. Though advanced, today’s robots do not yet come close to supporting teaming in dismounted military operations, and therefore simulation is required for developers to assess multimodal interfaces in complex multi-tasking scenarios. This paper describes existing and future simulations to support assessment of multimodal human-robot interaction in dismounted soldier-robot teams.