Using a Serious Game to Illustrate Supervisory Control Technology

We describe the development of a serious game designed to illustrate the impact of a supervisory control technology. The technology is designed to help human operators deliver better training experiences in simulation. It automates low-level control tasks, thus reducing operator workload. The serious game embeds the technology and simulation in a different context. In the game, the player directs several aircraft in a simulation toward specific geographic points while avoiding “obstacles” and obeying “speed limits” in certain areas. The player’s score is maximized when the player adjusts aircraft flight to the constraints, which change dynamically during gameplay. The supervisory control is employed as an “autopilot” to enable aircraft to automatically obey geographical restrictions. Users can play the game with and without the supervisory control technology. These modes allow the players to experience directly both overload and the workload reduction enabled by supervisory control. We contend that direct experience with a technology such as this can supplement design reviews and empirical piloting, helping stakeholders gain a more complete perspective of the desired operational role of the technology.