Distributed Operations among Human-Agent Teams for Testing Crew Water Recovery Systems

Control automation can reduce human workload by automating routine operations such as system reconfiguration and anomaly handling. Humans need assistance in interacting with these automated control agents. We have developed the Distributed Collaboration and Interaction (DCI) system, an environment in which humans and automated control agents work together. Within this environment, we provide personal liaison agents, called Ariel agents, for each human in a group to assist them in performing the duties associated with the roles they perform for that group. We have deployed the DCI system at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) to assist control engineers in performing duties associated with crew water recovery systems. In this paper we describe the water recovery system in the Water Research Facility (WRF) at JSC, the DCI system we developed, and our experiences in deploying DCI for use in the WRF.