Iteratively Adding Latent Human Knowledge Within Trajectory Optimization Specifications Improves Learning and Task Outcomes

Christine T. Chang, Maria P. Stull, Breanne Crockett, Emily Jensen, Clare Lohrmann, Mitchell Hebert, Bradley Hayes

Abstract: Frictionless and understandable tasking is essential for leveraging human-autonomy teaming in commercial, military, and public safety applications. Existing technology for facilitating human teaming with uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), utilizing planners or trajectory optimizers that incorporate human input, introduces a usability and operator capability gap by not explicitly effecting user upskilling by promoting system understanding or predictability. Supplementing annotated waypoints with natural language guidance affords an opportunity for both. In this work we investigate one-shot versus iterative input, introducing a testbed system based on government and industry UAV planning tools that affords inputs in the form of both natural language text and drawn annotations on a terrain map. The testbed uses an LLM-based subsystem to map user inputs into additional terms for the trajectory optimization objective function. We demonstrate through a human subjects study that prompting a human teammate to iteratively add latent knowledge to a trajectory optimization aids the user in learning how the system functions, elicits more desirable robot behaviors, and ultimately achieves better task outcomes.