Guest Editorial Special Section on Human-Centered Automation

The papers in this special section are devoted to the topic of human-centered automation. The central theme of these papers are the tools and methods for the design and analysis of human-centered automation systems including: the design and validation of computational models of systems that integrate models of the human with models of autonomous and semi-autonomous systems; the design of systems that ease the transfer of information between humans and autonomous systems; the analysis and prediction of potential conflicts between the human and the automation in semi-autonomous systems; the design of autonomy to accommodate varying levels of human experience, training, and acuity; the analysis of information asymmetry in collaborative, semi-autonomous systems; the design of autonomy for off-nominal conditions, such as multiple sensor failures, human error, or other cascading events; and the design of autonomy to support systems with multiple humans; the design of autonomous systems which are “self-aware,” so that humans are prompted to intervene when necessary.