Date of Award
5-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
First Advisor
Don Platt
Second Advisor
Debbie Carstens
Third Advisor
Heidi Hatfield Edwards
Fourth Advisor
Esther Beltran
Abstract
Current space medical systems rely on continuous Earth-based support. Exploration missions, however, necessitate a paradigm shift toward comprehensive care and crew autonomy. Early integration of diverse expertise along with increased human-centeredness are required to align medical capability, operational constraints, and human performance to increase crew safety and reduce mission risks.
Emerging technologies—including Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, and multimodal biomonitoring—create opportunities to design medical systems that enable astronauts to collaborate with agents as cyber–physical–human crews. While trust is a well-recognized pillar of effective medical collaboration on Earth, its systematic integration into the design of onboard medical systems and clinical decision-support interfaces for human spaceflight remains underdeveloped. To overcome barriers to adoption and ensure appropriate reliance in safety-critical contexts, future astronaut–agent medical systems must be designed to support mutual and justifiable trust.
This thesis develops a trust-centered approach to astronaut–agent space medical system design, advancing contributions across three interconnected stages. First, it establishes a transdisciplinary Trust-Centered Framework that embeds trust as an early design driver in medical system development. Second, it develops an empirically grounded taxonomy of mutual astronaut–agent trust factors and introduces Human–Agent Trust Maps as transdisciplinary tools for systematic requirement elicitation. Third, it provides practical insights from the case-study application of the Trust-Aware Scenarios method, translating mutual trust dynamics into concrete trust-related challenges, opportunities, and transdisciplinary recommendations for trust-driven interface and interaction design.
Taken together, this research supports the transition toward crew medical autonomy in long-duration exploration missions, while also providing foundations for systematic consideration of mutual human-agent trust factors in system design
Recommended Citation
Wojdecka, Anna Berenika, "Design for Mutual Trust in Astronaut-Agent Medical Collaboration" (2026). Theses and Dissertations. 1633.
https://repository.fit.edu/etd/1633
Included in
Art and Design Commons, Computer Engineering Commons, Computer Sciences Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Interprofessional Education Commons, Medical Sciences Commons, Other Engineering Commons, Space Habitation and Life Support Commons, Systems and Integrative Engineering Commons, Systems Engineering and Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Commons, Translational Medical Research Commons