Presenter: Prof Helen Hastie – Heriot-Watt University

Abstract: As we move towards full deployment of unmanned, autonomous systems, how we keep the human in-the-loop will be key to them reaching their full potential. Collaboration between human supervisors and remote teams of autonomous systems is highly challenging, particularly in high-stakes, remote, hazardous environments, such those found in the maritime domain. In order for these teams of robots to truly be beneficial, they need to be trusted to operate autonomously. In this talk, Professor Hastie will present general challenges in this area of human-robot teaming and trustworthy autonomous systems, in particular with respect to AUVs and offshore ground robots. As remote robots are generally trusted less than robots in close-proximity, techniques will be discussed to instil trust in the operator and enhance human-robot collaboration, for example through natural language interaction and explanations of robot behaviour.