The effect of human-robot interaction on trust, situational awareness, and performance in drone clearing operations

With advances in microcomputers, microprocessors, and battery form factor, small drones are seeing a growing trend of deployment. Building clearing operations, especially in active shooter scenarios, can be high risk when officers need to clear a building on their own. This study analysed the use of a small drone in a building clearing operation with a County Sheriff's Department to help mitigate the danger of single officer clearing operations. Aspects of trust (human-robotic trust survey), situational awareness (SART), mental demand (NASA-TLX), and performance (completion time and target miss rate) were measured. Fourteen officers, age 22-63 with an average of 5.4 years law enforcement experience and three years of building sweeping experience participated in the study. The results of the study indicate that the use of a single drone during clearing operation can slow down the operation, but accuracy and safety of clearing is enhanced. The use of the drone saw non-significant changes in mental workload other than temporal demand, increased situational awareness, a decrease in the number of targets missed, and a moderate level of trust.