Delegation Architectures: Playbooks and Policy for Keeping Operators in Charge

Keywords: unmanned military vehicles, human-automation delegation, goals, plans, constraints, abstract policy statements

Abstract: We argue that as Unmanned Military Vehicles become more intelligent and capable, and as we attempt to control more of them with fewer humans in the loop, we need to move toward a model of delegation of control rather than the direct control (that is, fine grained control with, generally, tight and fast control loops) that characterizes much current practice. We identify and describe five delegation methods that can serve as building blocks from which to compose complex and sensitive delegation systems: delegation through (1) providing goals, (2) providing full or partial plans, (3) providing negative constraints, (4) providingpositive constraints or stipulations, and (5) providing priorities or value statements in the form of a policy. We then describe two implemented delegation architectures that illustrate the use of some of these delegation methods: a “playbook” interface for UAV mission planning and a “policy” interface for optimizing the use of battlefield communications resources.