Unmanned Systems: A Very Human Problem

 What do you think of when you think of unmanned systems?

Do you think of a Roomba, carefully vacuuming while its master is out of the house?

Do you think of Alexa, the Amazon-powered speaker that tells bad jokes and helps you build shopping lists?

Do you think of Tesla cars, driving themselves on public roads?

Or do you think of Predator drones, spying on enemy fighters in foreign lands?

There’s a good chance that you thought of all these things. And there’s also a good chance that your mind went straight to the technological aspect of these devices, and completely bypassed the human element. That’s normal; humans have always been fascinated with technology.

However, to truly understand these systems, we need to understand the human factor. We need to understand the people who make these machines, who operate these machines, and who are affected by these machines.

Unmanned systems are becoming more commonplace every day. Camera drones are a common sight at NFL games. Online retailers continue to test self-propelled delivery devices. Chatbots hold conversations through an ever-evolving understanding of language. Our world is becoming more and more automated.

However, these systems are not created in a vacuum. They are created by human beings, and so carry the imperfections of their creators. They interact and behave in unexpected ways. Sometimes, they fall short of their intended goals. At other times, they far exceed the imaginations of their creators.

And they all leave an indelible imprint on the end user, a reminder that technology is always moving forward.

The goal of this blog is to bring those human factors to light and to help close the gap between human and machine. Unmanned systems are here to stay. It benefits us all to help understand how to interact and share space with these ever-evolving machines.