Single operator, multiple robots: An eye movement based theoretic model of operator situation awareness

For a single operator to effectively control multiple robots, operator situation awareness is a critical component of the human-robot system. There are three levels of situation awareness: perception, comprehension, and projection into the future. We focus on the perception level to develop a theoretic model of the perceptual-cognitive processes underlying situation awareness. Eye movement measures were developed as indicators of cognitive processing and these measures were used to account for operator situation awareness on a supervisory control task. The eye movement based model emphasizes the importance of visual scanning and attention allocation as the cognitive processes that lead to operator situation awareness and the model lays the groundwork for real-time prediction of operator situation awareness.