Human—machine cooperation in space environments

Abstract

Space mission environments are characterized by the presence of both human operators and advanced automated technology. One relevant aspect in this context is the degree of interaction between these two entities and, in particular, the role of the human agent with respect to his/her collaboration with potentially overwhelming technology. In designing innovative work environments, a certain degree of freedom must be maintained to allow humans and machines to cooperate and adapt to unforeseen contingencies. This paper describes a human — machine cooperation approach to address some of the new challenges introduced by user — system interaction in space missions. Specifically, we will elaborate on the need of retaining a level of flexibility in subdividing responsibilities between autonomous systems and human operators by encouraging the development of mixed systems that integrate the capabilities of both entities. Based on our experience in developing frameworks for space missions, we briefly report on two examples of decision-support tools, pointing out the human aspects that need to be taken into account as well as the beneficial effects of synergies between technology developers and experts in different fields like Cognitive Psychology and Human Computer Interaction. While the described experiences are mainly related to space mission control centres, the detected problems as well as the proposed solutions are, to some extent, extensible to manned missions in outer space.