Investigating the Tradespace Between Increased Automation and Optimal Manning for Aircraft Carrier Decks
Abstract
Investigating the Tradespace between Increased Automation and Optimal Manning for Aircraft Carrier Decks Approved for Public ReleaseThe Navy, as well as other branches of the Department of Defense (DoD), has recognized the importance of optimal manning in modern human-system domains. Particularly important areas for manning considerations are heterogeneous manned-unmanned environments in which humans work closely with powerful and potentially dangerous systems, which may be partially or fully autonomous. Unmanned and autonomous systems are advancing rapidly in reliability and functionality, leading to their adoption in the Naval forces and many other DoD applications. Fully autonomous aircraft are alreadybeing tested for landing and takeoff capabilities upon aircraft carrier decks. The adoption of these systems will create manned-unmanned environments in which human works closely with unmanned autonomous systems. As autonomy increases, the optimal role of the human in the system may change, and determining the appropriate role for the human must consider the impact to the system on both safety and efficiency. Thus, as the Navy continues to adopt autonomous systems on aircraft carriers, a key question arises: How can optimal manning be achieved on the carrier deck given greater use of autonomous systems? The goal of this proposed research is to develop an agent-based modeling tool to answer this question. This model, titled OMMAS (Optimal Manning Multi-Agent Simulation), will be an extension of a previously ONR funded project to develop a control architecture for unmanned aerial vehicles on naval aircraft carriers called MASCS (Multi-Agent Safety and Control Simulation). This optimal manning model will specifically focus on the aircraft carrier environment, but we will investigate how to extend this to other environments with increasing autonomy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 10, 2018
- Source ID
- N000141812194
Entities
People
- Missy Cummings
Organizations
- Duke University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy