Modeling human operator involvement in robotic systems

A modeling approach is presented to describe complex manned robotic systems. The robotic system is modeled as a (highly) nonlinear, possibly time-varying dynamic system including any time delays in terms of optimal estimation, control and decision theory. The role of the human operator(s) is modeled varying from supervisor of the automated part of the system to controller in terms of the various functions involved to perform goal-oriented tasks. It can be expected that the model is capable of answering questions related to reliability and efficiency, design alternatives, function allocation, automation, etc