Quenching the Thirst for Human-Machine Teaming Guidance: Helping Military Systems Acquisition Leverage Cognitive Engineering Research

There is a need in systems acquisition that is not currently being met. The insights from cognitive engineering research in human-automation interaction are not being systematically applied to acquisition processes associated with operational military systems. To address this gap, we synthesized guidance from the literature and translated it into a set of general cognitive interface requirements for human-machine teaming. By presenting the guidance as requirements, we are attempting to remove barriers from effective insights being used in implementation. This paper describes ten themes of human-machine teaming that need to be supported: Observability, Predictability, Directing Attention, Exploring the Solution Space, Directability, Adaptability, Common Ground, Calibrated Trust, Design Process, and Information Presentation. Example requirements are provided for Exploring the Solution Space. The general set of requirements can be tailored to specific systems as needed. To support this tailoring, we are developing and piloting cognitive task analysis techniques focused on human-machine teaming.