Envisioning human-robot coordination in future operations

Developers of autonomous capabilities underestimate the need for coordination with human team members when their automata are deployed into complex operational settings. Automata are brittle as literal minded agents and there is a basic asymmetry in coordinative competencies between people and automata. The new capabilities of robotic systems raise new questions about how to support coordination. This paper presents a series of issues that demand innovation to achieve human-robot coordination (HRC). These include supporting people in their roles as problem holder and as robotic handler, overcoming ambiguities in remote perception, avoiding coordination surprises by better tools to see into future robotic activities and contingencies, and responsibility in human-robot teams.