Human system integration in future AI-supported MUM-T mission management

Abstract

Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T), i.e. the cooperation between manned and unmanned resources, will play a central role in future combat and mission management. In line with current technological advances, future MUM-T systems however will not only see cooperation with highly autonomous unmanned resources. In addition, AI-powered systems will support human operators during every step of planning, decision making and mission management. This integration of AI in existing mission management processes and systems has to take the needs of the humans into account to optimally support and enhance the human operators’ performance in mission management and fully harness the advantages of MUM-T and AI. Thus, future AI-supported mission management systems should be developed in a human-centered design process including future users instead of mainly focusing on what is possible from an engineering perspective. Therefore, this paper outlines our approach to human system integration in the development of AI-supported mission management systems along the example of developing an HMI for fighter pilots. After first understanding and describing the system in which mission management takes place, the main human factors issues that should be taken into account when developing systems for AI-supported MUM-T mission management are summarized. Then, we give a short overview of the user-centered development of the HMI mock-up and summarize the results of a user evaluation. Implementing such a human-centered development process will ensure the success of future AI-supported mission management systems.