Date of Award

12-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

First Advisor

Thomas C. Eskridge

Second Advisor

Juan C. Avendano Arbelaez

Third Advisor

Khaled Slhoub

Fourth Advisor

Brian A. Lail

Abstract

Despite advances in autonomous systems, effective collaboration between humans and intelligent agents remains a significant challenge, particularly in shared-control scenarios. This study investigates how intent visualization affects human-agent collaboration in telecollaboration scenarios, examining its impact on team performance, operator trust, and workload. Using a custom simulation environment and Wizard-of-Oz methodology, we conducted an experiment with 13 participants who completed exploration tasks under two conditions: a baseline interface and an enhanced interface with intent visualization. Results showed that while intent visualization did not significantly improve objective performance metrics, it led to a 22.6\% increase in explicit disagreements between operators and the agent, suggesting more active operator engagement in decision-making. The intent condition also showed modest improvements in trust and workload measures, indicating that additional visual information could be incorporated without increasing cognitive burden while enhancing human-agent interaction.

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