abstract: Human-robot interaction has expanded immensely within dynamic environments. The goals of human-robot interaction are to increase productivity, efficiency and safety. In order for the integration of human-robot interaction to be seamless and effective humans must be willing to trust the capabilities of assistive robots. A major priority for human-robot interaction should be to understand how human dyads have been historically effective within a joint-task setting. This will ensure that all goals can be met in human robot settings. The aim of the present study was to examine human dyads and the effects of an unexpected interruption. Humans’ interpersonal and individual levels of trust were studied in order to draw appropriate conclusions. Seventeen undergraduate and graduate level dyads were collected from Arizona State University. Participants were broken up into either a surprise condition or a baseline condition. Participants individually took two surveys in order to have an accurate understanding of levels of dispositional and individual levels of trust. The findings showed that participant levels of interpersonal trust were average. Surprisingly, participants who participated in the surprise condition afterwards, showed moderate to high levels of dyad trust. This effect showed that participants became more reliant on their partners when interrupted by a surprising event. Future studies will take this knowledge and apply it to human-robot interaction, in order to mimic the seamless team-interaction shown in historically effective dyads, specifically human team interaction. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Engineering 2019

Thesis (Master, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2007-10-25 13:31:32.904 / My thesis is an examination of militarized masculinity in Canada’s JTF2 Special Forces and the Private Security Firm Blackwater. I employ a gender analysis to highlight how militarized masculinity impedes women’s participation from Special Forces and private security firms. Feminist scholarship by Cynthia Enloe, Ann Tickner, Sandra Whitworth, and Charlotte Hooper has examined how militarized masculinity is associated within a particular political/situational context and therefore should be understood in its plural—as militarized masculinities. However, there is limited scholarship focusing on how masculinities vary in Special Forces and private security firms. This lack of scholarship results in limited knowledge of the implications militarized masculinity in these units has for women’s security and for women’s participation in these units. The purpose of this thesis is to add to the current literature by exploring, through militarized masculinities, the gender barriers to women’s participation and the consequences of the security produced when these units deploy. To analyze the impact of militarized masculinity in these units I conducted interviews with authorities on these units, applicants interested in participating in these units, and performed a content analysis of Blackwater’s website. I argue based on the information gathered that militarized masculinity, while varied in its application in special units and private security firms, continues to impede women’s participation and in some cases can cause greater insecurity for women where these units are deployed. / Master

My thesis is an examination militarized masculinity in Canada's JTF2 Special Forces and the Private Security Firm Blackwater. I employ a gender analysis to highlight how militarized masculinity impedes women's participation from Special Forces and private security firms. Feminist scholarship by Cynthia Enloe, Ann Tickner, Sandra Whitworth, and Charlotte Hooper has examined how militarized masculinity is associated within a particular political/situational context and therefore should be understood in its plural--as militarized masculinities. However, there is limited scholarship focusing on how masculinities vary in Special Forces and private security firms. This lack of scholarship results in limited knowledge of the implications militarized masculinity in these units has for women's security and for women's participation in these units. The purpose of this thesis is to add to the current literature by exploring, through militarized masculinities, the gender barriers to women's participation and the consequences of the security produced when these units deploy. To analyze the impact of militarized masculinity in these units I conducted interviews with authorities on these units, applicants interested in participating in these units, and performed a content analysis of Blackwater's website. I argue based on the information gathered that militarized masculinity, while varied in its application in special units and private security firms, continues to impede women's participation and in some cases can cause greater insecurity for women where these units are deployed.

Objectif de cette thèse est le développent de méthodes de planification pour la résolution de tâches jointes homme-robot dans des espaces publiques. Dans les espaces publiques, les utilisateurs qui coopèrent avec le robot peuvent facilement se distraire et abandonner la tâche jointe. Cette thèse se focalise donc sur les défis posés par l’incertitude et imprévisibilité d’une coopération avec un humain. La thèse décrit l’état de l’art sur la coopération homme-robot dans la robotique de service, et sur les modèles de planification. Elle présente ensuite une nouvelle approche théorique, basée sur les processus décisionnels de Markov partiellement observables, qui permet de garantir la coopération de l’humain tout au long de la tâche, de façon flexible, robuste et rapide. La thèse introduit une structure hiérarchique qui sépare l’aspect coopératif d’une activité jointe de la tâche en soi. L’approche a été appliquée dans un scénario réel, un robot guide dans un centre commercial. La thèse présente les expériences effectuées pour mesurer la qualité de l’approche proposée, ainsi que les expériences avec le robot réel. / This thesis presents a novel method for ensuring cooperation between humans and robots in public spaces, under the constraint of human behavior uncertainty. The thesis introduces a hierarchical and flexible framework based on POMDPs. The framework partitions the overall joint activity into independent planning modules, each dealing with a specific aspect of the joint activity: either ensuring the human-robot cooperation, or proceeding with the task to achieve. The cooperation part can be solved independently from the task and executed as a finite state machine in order to contain online planning effort. In order to do so, we introduce a belief shift function and describe how to use it to transform a POMDP policy into an executable finite state machine.The developed framework has been implemented in a real application scenario as part of the COACHES project. The thesis describes the Escort mission used as testbed application and the details of implementation on the real robots. This scenario has as well been used to carry several experiments and to evaluate our contributions.

La présence des congénères constitue l’élément de base du contexte social, dont la psychologie sociale expérimentale tente depuis un siècle de comprendre les influences (positives et négatives) et autres mécanismes sous-jacents. Chez l’homme, ces influences repérables sur la cognition dépendent souvent de la capacité évaluative de la personne présente. À l’interface de la psychologie sociale, de la psychologie cognitive et des neurosciences intégratives, notre thèse est que la présence évaluative d’autrui (la présence de l’expérimentateur) affaiblit de manière transitoire le contrôle exécutif, avec une double influence : néfaste dans les activités complexes impliquant un conflit de réponses, et bénéfique dans les activités dont la réussite n’implique que l’émission de réponses automatiques. Nos résultats (quatre études) soutiennent la thèse défendue à partir du couplage de la tâche de Simon (permettant une mesure du contrôle exécutif) ou de son adaptation récente en version partagée (présence d’un coacteur) avec des enregistrements électromyographiques. Ces résultats confortent ainsi notre approche intégrative des influences attachées à la présence d’autrui, dont les implications pratiques sont fortes s’agissant notamment de l’étude des processus cognitifs en laboratoire. / The presence of conspecifics is the basic element of the social context, whose experimental social psychology has been trying for a century to understand the influences (positive and negative) and underlying mechanisms. In humans, these influences on cognition often depend on the evaluative capacity of the person present. At the interface of social psychology, cognitive psychology, and integrative neuroscience, our thesis is that the presence of evaluative others (experimenter presence) temporarily weakens executive control, with a negative influence in complex activities involving response conflict, and a beneficial influence in activities requiring only the emission of automatic responses to succeed. Our results (four studies) support our thesis based on the coupling of the Simon task (measuring executive control) or its recent adaptation (shared version implying the presence of a coactor) with electromyographic recordings. Our findings confirm our integrative approach of social presence effects, whose practical implications are strong, particularly with regard to the study of cognitive processes in the laboratory.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / The need for a well thought out, planned, and rehearsed command and control organization to conduct special operations in the US Northern Command Area of Responsibility is vital to success in defending the Homeland. Currently, USNORTHCOM does not have an apportioned or assigned command and control structure for the conduct of special operations. This thesis analyzes three courses of action to fulfill this requirement: use the current USNORTHCOM battle staff command structure including the integration of the Standing Joint Force Headquarters-North; rely on the newly formed US Special Operations Command's Joint Task Force Structures; and establish a Theater Special Operations Command North assigned to USNORTHCOM. Through the conduct of analysis and research this thesis recommends that The Joint Staff direct the reorganization required to establish a Theater Special Operations Command North to exercise command and control of special operations forces conducting operations in the USNORTHCOM AOR. / Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army