Explorations of Autonomy: An Investigation of Adjustable Autonomy in Intelligent Environments

There are many arguments for and against the use of autonomous-agents in intelligent environments. Some researchers maintain that it is of utmost importance to give complete control to users, and hence greatly restrict autonomy of agents, whereas, others believe that is it preferable to increase user convenience by allowing agents to operate autonomously on the user's behalf. While both of these approaches have their distinct merits, they are not suitable for all users. As people's opinions and concerns regarding agent autonomy are highly individual, depending on a wide range of factors and often changing over time, a much more dynamic approach to agent autonomy is needed. This work explores how it is possible to equip intelligent environments with an adjustable autonomy mechanism, which allows an individual user to increase or decrease agent autonomy in order to find their own comfortable sweet-spot between maintaining/relinquishing control and gaining/losing convenience. This paper presents the Adjustable Autonomy Intelligent Environment (AAIE) model, discusses how adjustable autonomy can be achieved in intelligent environments, and discusses the major findings from a recent online survey and user study, which highlight the major factors and concerns of users that determine their personal preferences towards different levels of autonomy.