Human Interactive Mission Manager : an autonomous mission manager for human cooperative systems

Abstract

Facilitating low level human supervisory control of mission management is highly challenging because of concerns regarding system stability and performance. Previous implementations of mission managers based on C. S. Draper Laboratory?s All-Domain Execution and Planning Technology (ADEPT) are based on an architecture that can be verified to act deterministically with scripted human interaction opportunities. This thesis describes the Human Interactive Mission Manager (HIMM), a general software architecture to facilitate human supervisory control level of interaction based on ADEPT. The HIMM provides operator insight and mission designer interaction mechanisms. These features provide interaction in a controlled but asynchronous way as a baseline service of the HIMM system. The design separates the information used by the operator from the data used by the mission manager so that the addition of asynchronous human interaction will not adversely affect normal execution. To explore the interaction mechanisms and exercise the system, the software was applied to a space domain application. This prototype system facilitates asynchronous input from a human operator to the mission manager.