COACTIVE DESIGN IN SYSTEMS ENGINEERING: HUMAN-MACHINE TEAMING IN SEARCH AND RESCUE (SAR) OPERATIONS

Abstract

Coactive Design is a process that addresses the increasingly complex roles that humans and robots play in modern digitalized systems. It analyzes the interdependencies between members in human-robot teamwork and optimizes interactive collaboration to support the team's overall capabilities. The process endeavors to provide designers and industry players with the necessary analysis tools and techniques to move the industry away from robot-centric automation in which the traditional goal has been for robots to perform required tasks independently from the team. The two outcomes of this thesis are (1) the proposal of an integrated Coactive Systems Engineering Design (COSEED) framework to guide the development of more effective human-machine teaming (HMT) systems and (2) a development exercise for an HMT system to demonstrate the potential gains from the incorporation of the Coactive Design approach into the well-established systems engineering process in the field of inland search and rescue. These result in new findings in how both systems engineering and Coactive Design could be adapted to better complement each other.