Encephalographic assessment of situation awareness in teleoperation of human-swarm teaming

Abstract

An important factor in the operational success of any teleoperated human-swarm system is situation awareness (SA). A loss of SA has been associated with poor human performance, which can lead to misjudgement, errors, and life-threatening situations. One of the major factors that causes loss of SA is the degradation of data transmission. It is imperative to assess the SA of an operator before the performance of a teleoperated system has declined, in particular in situations of delayed relay and/or loss of critical information. We use electroencephalography (EEG) to predict different levels of SA. A human-swarm simulation was used to obtain subjective scores from participants. Quality of information significantly affected the perception of SA of the participants. EEG data provided objective confirmation of the resultant SA level. Theta, Alpha, and Beta band exhibited an increase during loss of SA. Frontal and occipital areas were identified to reflect changes in SA. These preliminary results offer evidence for the potential use of EEG to offer real-time indicators for the objective assessment of SA.