Decision Strings: Their application within a Human Machine Team

The evolving battlefield has seen the adaptation and innovative use of technology over the span of human history. We find ourselves immersed within a new technological era, where artificial intelligence is not only available across different applications, but it has become both pervasive and ubiquitous. This has inevitably not only had an effect on how we conduct modern warfare, but poses fundamental questions relating to how we integrate such advanced technology within existing human teams. The human-machine team is now a focal point for how we harness and gain a competitive edge over our adversaries. While we are in a strong position in terms of the related disciplines associated with human autonomy teaming, the very nature of such a team is beginning to strain the traditional tools we use in Human Factors. Fundamental to the design and evaluation of these teams is the nature of how we define and explore decisions, and how both human and agent team mates are orchestrated within this new paradigm of teaming. There is clearly a need to explore and develop new methods for understanding how decisions are defined within this context - and in a manner that is able to cross discipline boundaries. This paper takes the concept of decision strings and applies it to a use case in order to explore the nature of this method of allowing a multidisciplinary team to explore the nature of how decisions can be handled between human and agent team mates, and in some instances shared.