Introducing a task prioritization tool in a complex supervisory control environment

Proficient attention allocation is a vital component of effective mission performance in complex mission scenarios. This study intends to develop an attention allocation tool for a complex supervisory control mission scenario with teams of heterogeneous robots. A task manager display with a simple first-come-first-serve (FCFS) attention allocation strategy was developed to evaluate if the tool can increase performance of the robots´ operators. Three team size configurations were considered in a randomized order within-subject design across both tool and no-tool treatment conditions. The results emphasized the importance of the robot team size variable as critical in designing an effective attention allocation tool.