Abstract
Human-Autonomy Teams (HATs) stand at an intersection of domains that benefit from both teaming principles and technological innovation. HATs have demonstrated technical success in various domains, including emergency response, medicine, and manufacturing. However, we submit that the integration of autonomous teammates should not only be driven by the technological capacity of autonomous systems, but also by the demonstrated need within their intended domains. This study qualitatively explored hazardous-environment teams' functional dynamics through 20 semi-structured interviews to identify a driving need to expand the workforce in these domains and illuminate socio-economic factors that may impact the utilization of autonomous teammates to do so. The results indicate that, beyond the performance benefits of including technology, these teams would benefit from technology supplementing their workforce, a capability unique to the implementation of autonomous technologies as interdependent teammates. Furthermore, this study identified current top-down and bottom-up technology adoption pathways that can be used to streamline HAT formation in these domains. Lastly, cultural inertia to novel methods and economic limitations within these teams serve as barriers to HAT implementation. In consequence, this study submits that hazardous-environment domains should adopt HATs, and that the integration process can be accelerated by presenting the operational benefits of autonomous teammates to both domain leaders and frontline team members.
Cite this work
Chase Guynup, Han Nguyen, Rhea Basappa, Kwame Andre, Mia Yancey, Christopher Flathmann, Nathan McNeese, Carlos Toxtli-Hernández, Kapil Madathil, and Anand Gramopadhye. 2026. Expanding the Roster: Qualitative Needs Assessment for Autonomous Teammates in Hazardous Environments. 2026 IEEE Conference on Cognitive and Computational Aspects of Situation Management (CogSIMA). https://doi.org/10.1109/cogsima68896.2026.11481227
@inproceedings{Guynup_2026,
title = {Expanding the Roster: Qualitative Needs Assessment for Autonomous Teammates in Hazardous Environments},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/cogsima68896.2026.11481227},
doi = {10.1109/cogsima68896.2026.11481227},
booktitle = {2026 IEEE Conference on Cognitive and Computational Aspects of Situation Management (CogSIMA)},
publisher = {IEEE},
author = {Guynup, Chase and Nguyen, Han and Basappa, Rhea and Andre, Kwame and Yancey, Mia and Flathmann, Christopher and McNeese, Nathan and Toxtli, Carlos and Madathil, Kapil and Gramopadhye, Anand},
year = {2026},
month = Mar,
pages = {109--116}
}Related
