A Kalman estimation model of human trust in supervisory control of robotic swarms

Abstract

Trust is an important factor in the interaction between humans and automation that can mediate the reliance of human operators. In this work, we evaluate a computational model of human trust on swarm systems based on Sheridan (2019)’s modified Kalman estimation model using existing experiment data (Nam, Li, Li, Lewis, & Sycara, 2018). Results show that our Kalman Filter model outperforms existing state of the art alternatives including dynamic Bayesian networks and inverse reinforcement learning. This work is novel in that: 1) The Kalman estimator is the first computational model formulating the human trust evolution as a combination of both open-loop trust anticipation and closed-loop trust feedback. 2) The proposed model considers the operator’s cognitive time lag between perceiving and processing the system display. 3) The proposed model provides a personalized model for each individual and reaches a better level of fitness than state-of-the-art alternatives.