Effects of unreliable automation in scheduling operator attention for multi-robot control

The present study investigates the effect of imperfect automation in a human multi-robot controlled environment with different principles for scheduling an operator´s attention in a foraging task. The experiment compared a SJF-queue (shortest job first) presenting a single alarm at a time with an Open-queue which showed all current alarms. Two levels of automation reliability, high (90%) and low (50%), were examined in the study. Performance for the queue mechanisms was equivalent confirming that operator attention can be effectively directed to improve performance. Additionally, the higher reliability condition raised an operator´s success rate for resolving robot failures and assisted the operator in allocating attention to emergent events in a timely manner. Although the more frequent alerts contributed to better performance operators experienced increased levels of workload.