A Proposed Approach for Determining the Influence of Multimodal Robot-of-Human Transparency Information on Human-Agent Teams

Autonomous agents, both software and robotic, are becoming increasingly common. They are being used to supplement human operators in accomplishing complex tasks, often acting as collaborators or teammates. Agents can be designed to keep their human operators ` in the loop' by reporting information concerning their internal decision making process. This transparency can be expressed in a number of ways, including the communication of the human and agent's respective responsibilities. Agents can communicate information supporting transparency to human operators using visual, auditory, or a combination of both modalities. Based on this information, we suggest an approach to exploring the utility of the teamwork model of transparency. We propose some considerations for future research into feedback supporting teamwork transparency, including multimodal communication methods, human-like feedback, and the use of multiple forms of automation transparency.