Effective collaboration between humans and autonomous agents can improve productivity and reduce risks of human operators in safety-critical situations, with autonomous agents working as complementary teammates and lowering physical and mental demands by providing assistance and recommendations in complicated scenarios. Ineffective collaboration would have drawbacks, such as risks of being out-of-the-loop when switching over controls, increased time and workload due to the additional needs for communication and situation assessment, unexpected outcomes due to overreliance, and disuse of autonomy due to uncertainty and low expectations. Disclosing the information about the agents for communication and collaboration is one approach to calibrate trust for appropriate reliance and overcome the drawbacks in human-autonomy teaming. When disclosing agent information, the level of detail (LOD) needs careful consideration because not only the availability of information but also the demand for information processing would change, resulting in unintended consequences on comprehension, workload, and task performance. This dissertation investigates how visualization design at different LODs about autonomy influences transparency, trust, and, ultimately, the effectiveness of human autonomy teaming (HAT) in search and rescue missions. LOD indicates the amount of information aggregated or organized in communication for the human to perceive, comprehend, and respond, and could be manipulated by changing the granularity of information in a user interface. High LOD delivers less information so that users can identify overview and key information of autonomy, while low LOD delivers information in a more detailed manner. The objectives of this research were (1) to build a simulation platform for a representative HAT task affected by visualizations at different LODs about autonomy, (2) to establish the empirical relationship between LOD and transparency, given potential information overload with indiscriminate exposure, and (3) examine how to adapt LOD in visualization with respect to trust as users interact with autonomy over time. A web-based application was developed for wilderness SAR, which can support different visualizations of the lost-person model, UAV path-planner, and task assignment. Two empirical studies were conducted recruiting human participants to collaborate with autonomous agents, making decisions on search area assignment, unmanned aerial vehicle path planning, and object detection. The empirical data included objective measures of task performance and compliance, subjective ratings of transparency, trust, and workload, and qualitative interview data about the designs with students and search and rescue professionals. The first study revealed that lowering LODs (i.e., more details) does not lead to a proportional increase in transparency (ratings), trust, workload, accuracy, and speed. Transparency increased with decreased LODs up to a point before the subsequent decline, providing empirical evidence for the transparency paradox phenomenon. Further, lowering LOD about autonomy can promote trust with diminishing returns and plateau even with lowering LOD further. This suggests that simply presenting some information about autonomy can build trust quickly, as the users may perceive any reasonable forms of disclosure as signs of benevolence or good etiquette that promote trust. Transparency appears more sensitive to LOD than trust, likely because trust is conceptually less connected to the understanding of autonomy than transparency. In addition, the impacts of LODs were not uniform across the human performance measurements. The visualization with the lowest LOD yielded the highest decision accuracy but the worst in decision speed and intermediate levels of workload, transparency, and trust. LODs could induce the speed-accuracy trade-off. That is, as LOD decreases, more cognitive resources are needed to process the increased amount of information; thus, processing speed decreases accordingly. The second study revealed patterns of overall and instantaneous trust with respect to visualization at different LODs. For static visualization, the lowest LOD resulted in higher transparency ratings than the middle and high LOD. The lowest LOD generated the highest overall trust amongst the static and adaptive LODs. For visualizations of all LODs, instantaneous trust increased and then stabilized after a series of interactions. However, the rate of change and plateau for trust varied with LODs and modes between static and adaptive. The lowest, middle, and adaptive LODs followed a sigmoid curve, while the high LOD followed a linear one. Among the static LODs, the lowest LOD exhibits the highest growth rate and plateau in trust. The middle LOD developed trust the slowest and reached the lowest plateau. The high LOD showed a linear growth rate until a level similar to that of the lowest LOD. Adaptive LOD earned the trust of the participants at a very similar speed and plateau as the lowest LOD. Taking these results together, more details about autonomy are effective for expediting the process of building trust, as long as the amount of information is carefully managed to prevent overloading participants' information processing. Further, varying quantities of information in adaptive mode could yield very similar growth and plateau in trust, helping humans to deal with either the minimum or maximum amount of information. This adaptive approach could prevent situations where comprehension is hindered due to insufficient information or where users are potentially overloaded by details. Adapting LODs to instantaneous trust presents a promising technique for managing information exchange that can promote the efficiency of communication for building trust. The contribution of this research to literature is two-fold. The first study provides the first empirical evidence indicating that the impact of LODs on transparency and trust is not linear, which has not been explicitly demonstrated in prior studies about HAT. The impact of LOD on transparency is more sensitive than trust, calling for a more defined and consistent use of the term or concept - "transparency" and a deeper investigation into the relationships between trust and transparency. The second study presents the first examination of how static and dynamic LODs can influence the development of trust toward autonomy. The algorithm for adapting LOD for the adaptive visualization based on user trust is novel, and adaptive LODs in visualization could switch between detailed and abstract information to influence trust without always transmitting all the details about autonomy. Visualizations with different LODs in both static and adaptive modes present their own set of benefits and drawbacks, resulting in trade-offs concerning the speed of promoting trust and information quantity transmitted during communication. These findings indicate that LOD is an important factor for designing and analyzing visualization for transparency and trust in HAT. / Doctor of Philosophy / The collaboration between human and autonomous agents in search and rescue (SAR) missions aims to improve the success rate and speed of finding the lost person. In these missions, a human supervisor may coordinate with autonomous agents responsible for estimating lost person behavior, path planning, and unmanned aerial vehicles. The human SAR professional may rely on information from the autonomous agents to reinforce the search plan and make crucial decisions. Balancing the amount of information provided by the autonomous agents to the SAR professionals is critical, as insufficient information can hinder trust, leading to manual intervention, and excessive information can cause information overload, reducing efficiency. Both cases can result in human distrust of autonomy. Effective visualization of information can help study and improve the transmission of information between humans and autonomous agents. This approach can reduce unnecessary information in communication, thus conserving communication resources without sacrificing trust. This dissertation investigates how visualization design at the proper aggregation of details about autonomy, also referred to as level of detail (LOD), influences perceived understanding of the autonomous agents (i.e., transparency), trust, and ultimately, the effectiveness of human autonomy teaming (HAT) for wilderness SAR. A simulation platform was built for proof-of-concept, and two studies were conducted recruiting human participants to use the platform for completing simulated SAR tasks supported by visualizations at different LODs about autonomy. Study 1 results showed that transparency ratings increased with more details about autonomy up to a point and then declined with the most details (i.e., lowest LOD). Trust, workload, and performance also did not linearly improve with more details about autonomy. The non-linear relationships of LODs with transparency, trust, workload, and performance, confirmed the phenomenon of the transparency paradox, which refers to the disclosure of excessive information about autonomy may hinder transparency and subsequent performance. Study 2 results also illustrated that when visualization with LOD adapted to instant trust, the speed of building trust and the plateau of trust on autonomy can achieve the same level as the visualization provided with the most details, which performed the best in building trust. This adaptive approach minimized the amount of information displayed relative to the visualization, constantly presenting the most information, potentially easing the burden of communication. Taken together, this research highlights that the amount of information about autonomy to display must be considered carefully for both research and practice. Further, this dissertation advances the visualization design by illustrating that visualization adapting LODs based on trust is effective at building trust in a manner that minimizes the amount of information presented to the user.

abstract: Despite the prevalence of teams in complex sociotechnical systems, current approaches to understanding workload tend to focus on the individual operator. However, research suggests that team workload has emergent properties and is not necessarily equivalent to the aggregate of individual workload. Assessment of communications provides a means of examining aspects of team workload in highly interdependent teams. This thesis set out to explore how communications are associated with team workload and performance under high task demand in all-human and human–autonomy teams in a command and control task. A social network analysis approach was used to analyze the communications of 30 different teams, each with three members operating in a command and control task environment of over a series of five missions. Teams were assigned to conditions differentiated by their composition with either a naïve participant, a trained confederate, or a synthetic agent in the pilot role. Social network analysis measures of centralization and intensity were used to assess differences in communications between team types and under different levels of demand, and relationships between communication measures, performance, and workload distributions were also examined. Results indicated that indegree centralization was greater in the all-human control teams than in the other team types, but degree centrality standard deviation and intensity were greatest in teams with a highly trained experimenter pilot. In all three team types, the intensity of communications and degree centrality standard deviation appeared to decrease during the high demand mission, but indegree and outdegree centralization did not. Higher communication intensity was associated with more efficient target processing and more successful target photos per mission, but a clear relationship between measures of performance and decentralization of communications was not found. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Human Systems Engineering 2020

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The diploma thesis titled Euthanasia in the film an analysis of selected pieces, is divided into theoretical and practical parts. I devoted to a description of a current state of euthanasia in the theoretical part. First I focused on definitions of euthanasia, assisted suicide etc. A chapter is also devoted to a history of euthanasia. I wanted to highlight the fact, that euthanasia is not only a problem of the modern society, but beginnings of a discussion about euthanasia we could find already in the ancient world. Through the concept of euthanasia in the Middle Ages and modern times I got up to the World War II, which is in my opinion an important milestone in the history of euthanasia, because at that time euthanasia was perceived as a tool for a disposal of persons who, in the context of its time, seemed to be undesirable. Among such people there were classified for example people so called racially unsuitable, weak and sick. Because there are legally different views of euthanasia, in chapters I mention the fact how euthanasia is perceived in the world. In terms of acceptance of euthanasia and assisted suicide I particularly emphasize the Netherlands and Switzerland. One chapter I also dedicate to euthanasia in the Czech Republic. It includes a description of the discussion and arguments for and against euthanasia. One more separate chapter I devoted to questions whether to legalize or not to legalize euthanasia. I found out that a discussion on this topic is very extensive and here could be applied the rule that each man has his own opinion. It turned out that even experts in one area, doctors of philosophers, are not unanimous in the issue of euthanasia and its pros and cons are from both sides argued with plenty of arguments that are worth thinking about. A separate chapter I devoted to a man, who I consider to be the main promoter of euthanasia and assisted suicide and if you pronounce his name, people would link him with that theme. This is Dr. Jack Kevorkian, nicknamed Dr. Death. Jack Kevorkian, who understood his acts as medical services for terminally ill people, helped with the voluntary termination of life to several hundred of people. Although he had written certain "rules" about the situations when he can people "help" to solve their suffering and pain, it turned out that those people in many cases had no anatomical evidence of disease in their body. Jack Kevorkian has had and even currently has many supporters and opponents. In case of Jack Kevorkian there are arguments for and against euthanasia as in the whole debate about it. The aim of the study was to analyse how the topic of euthanasia has been reflected in the film production. At the beginning of the research I have asked this research question: Which are usual attitudes to euthanasia reflected in filmmaking? In order to find out the given objective and to answer the research question I chose a qualitative research based on the method of disinterested observation of six selected movie titles. Titles in their alphabetical order were following: Doktor smrt (You Don´t Know Jack, USA, 2010, 134 min), Hlas moře (Mar adentro, Španělsko/Francie/Itálie, 2004, 125 min), Hodinu nevíš, Česko, 2009, 94 min), Invaze barbarů (Invasion barbares, Kanada/Fancie, 2003, 99 min), Millon Dollar Baby, (USA, 2004, 132 min) a Skafandr a motýl (Le Scaphandre et le papillon, Francie/USA, 2007, 107 min).

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[pt] A sociedade passa por um momento de intensas transformações pautadas no uso de novas tecnologia. Nesse contexto, a inteligência artificial (IA) assume o papel de protagonista gerando debates acerca dos limites da sua aplicação. Cada vez mais presente na vida dos indivíduos e instituições, a IA participa de processos de tomada de decisão que, não raro, têm reflexos em direitos fundamentais e questões existenciais dos indivíduos. Tendo em vista a busca de soluções pautadas na centralidade humana no uso da tecnologia, o presente estudo se propõe a investigar a supervisão humana como instrumento de tutela da autonomia existencial no contexto de tomada de decisões automatizadas por sistemas de IA. Por meio da análise da relação entre a autonomia da máquina e a autonomia existencial, o texto traça o caminho para a investigação dos princípios e dispositivos legais vigentes que legitimam a necessidade da supervisão humana sobre os resultados decisórios gerados por sistemas de IA de alto risco, bem como o tratamento do tema nas propostas legislativas em trâmite no Brasil e União Europeia que visam regular os usos e aplicações da IA. / [en] The society is going through a moment of intense transformations based on the use of new technologies. In this context, artificial intelligence (AI) takes on the role of protagonist, generating debates about the limits of its application. Increasingly present in the lives of individuals. In view of the search for solutions based on the human centrality in the use of technology, the present study proposes to investigate human supervision as an intrument to protect human autonomy in the context of automated decision-making by AI systems.Through the analysis of the relation between machine autonomy and existential autonomy, the text outlines the path for the investigation of the current legal principles and laws that legitimize the need for human supervision over the decision-makinngg results generated by high-risk AI systems as well as the treatment of the subject in the legislative proposals in progress in Brazil and European Union that aim to regulate the uses aplications of AI.

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abstract: This increasing role of highly automated and intelligent systems as team members has started a paradigm shift from human-human teaming to Human-Autonomy Teaming (HAT). However, moving from human-human teaming to HAT is challenging. Teamwork requires skills that are often missing in robots and synthetic agents. It is possible that adding a synthetic agent as a team member may lead teams to demonstrate different coordination patterns resulting in differences in team cognition and ultimately team effectiveness. The theory of Interactive Team Cognition (ITC) emphasizes the importance of team interaction behaviors over the collection of individual knowledge. In this dissertation, Nonlinear Dynamical Methods (NDMs) were applied to capture characteristics of overall team coordination and communication behaviors. The findings supported the hypothesis that coordination stability is related to team performance in a nonlinear manner with optimal performance associated with moderate stability coupled with flexibility. Thus, we need to build mechanisms in HATs to demonstrate moderately stable and flexible coordination behavior to achieve team-level goals under routine and novel task conditions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Engineering 2017

<p dir="ltr">Cyber-physical-human systems (CPHSs) integrate human cognitive capabilities into the decision and control processes of complex dynamical systems. While artificial intelligence (AI) has shown promise in controlling such systems, it often encounters challenges such as conflict with human behavior and brittleness. Moreover, even successful AI implementations may lead to negative impacts on humans, such as the degradation of manual skills and diminished situation awareness, thereby weakening humans' ability to effectively monitor and intervene in off-nominal conditions as the final decision-makers of the systems. To address these unique challenges within CPHSs, this dissertation proposes three key approaches. First, human behavior modeling approaches are proposed to enhance understanding and prediction of human behavior from the perspective of AI. Accurate modeling enables better calibration of AI's expectations regarding human teammates' intentions and skill-levels. Second, a novel shared control approach is developed to expedite human training for complex dynamic control tasks. An assistant agent supports human novices in emulating human experts by leveraging human behavior models to gauge the human's skill-levels and provide tailored assistance to help improve one's skill. Lastly, human-autonomy teaming (HAT) design is addressed from a resource allocation perspective. A systematic computational simulation approach is proposed to optimize function and attention allocation to manage trade-offs in performance, situation awareness, workload, and other considerations. The proposed frameworks are demonstrated via examples in drone applications. Numerical and experimental results, utilizing simulation platforms and human subjects, validate the efficacy of the proposed approaches. This dissertation presents significant progress in the design and implementation of CPHSs in that it offers insights and methodologies to enhance collaborative interactions between humans and autonomous systems in complex environments.</p>