This thesis addresses the interaction of operators and technical processes in human-machine systems, in which machine-performed processes are potentially error-prone or incomplete. In the specific application field of Manned-Unmanned-Teaming, automated unmanned aerial reconnaissance flight platforms are guided by the commander of a transport helicopter for reconnaissance of flight routes with respect to potential threats during mission execution. Due the potential imperfection of the reconnaissance results, the commander is confronted with an additional load of tasks and increased workload. As an objective of this thesis, the sensor-based reconnaissance process should therefore be automated in a way that involves operators in case of degrading reliability in a situational and as-needed manner, thus demanding for tolerable workload. The focus of the research is on the performance of the new automation approach, the confidence of the operators, and their task load and workload. In this work, the paradigm of variable automation combined with the integration scheme called Levels of Automation was selected and several visual representations of potentially unreliable reconnaissance data were designed and integrated using three levels of automation. Their design follows principles of work science and cognitive psychology. Specifically, the concept transfers knowledge of human visual information acquisition to the acquisition of visually presented reconnaissance data. The aim is to create ergonomically friendly representations that can be perceived with minimum effort. To adapt the automation level, a measure of the reliability of the automated processes was used, which allows the selection of a suitable automation level at runtime. Such an experimental system was implemented and integrated into a mission simulator. The experimental evaluation based on a human-in-the-loop experiment, where helicopter commanders field-tested the experimental system in simulated operational missions. For experimental validation, subjects were presented different visual representations as products of the automation levels on the cockpit displays. The investigations demonstrated and confirmed that unreliable reconnaissance data can be recovered by the purposeful involvement of the operators at runtime in principle. The overall system (man-machine team) achieved high performance measures as well as positive effects from its adaptiveness; for example, more than 3 times the required flight path length of the helicopter was successfully searched, and the helicopter operated more than 90 % over reconnoitered areas. The rate of completely identified objects increased significantly due to the systematic contribution of cognitive human performance; for 92 % of the cases of uncertain detections, the process chain was successfully completed and verified by the systematic demand of identification performance at a mean interval of 2.3 minutes. Overall, the procedure of situationally involving operators in the evaluation process was found to be tolerable effort for the experienced added value. Subjects experienced low effort, moderate to high demands on concentration, and high demands on attention during their momentary involvement. Pronounced confidence in the modes of data representation ranged from 70 % to 95 % and followed the opposite degree of automation, which corresponds to a calibrated trust relationship.    «

This thesis addresses the interaction of operators and technical processes in human-machine systems, in which machine-performed processes are potentially error-prone or incomplete. In the specific application field of Manned-Unmanned-Teaming, automated unmanned aerial reconnaissance flight platforms are guided by the commander of a transport helicopter for reconnaissance of flight routes with respect to potential threats during mission execution. Due the potential imperfection of the reconnaissa...    »