The Mixed Initiative Experimental (mix) Testbed for Human Robot Interactions with Varied Levels of Automation

In 2007, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) released a report detailing the future of robotic military equipment and how to proceed in development and procurement of unmanned systems (Office of Secretary of Defense, 2007). This document recognizes the role of unmanned systems in the areas of reconnaissance, surveillance, and target identification. This role for unmanned systems implies a need for improved warfighter support and training. The Mixed Initiative Experimental (MIX) Testbed is a distributed simulation environment which provides a means for this type of training. This paper describes the design and capabilities of the MIX Testbed and exemplar scenarios for research and training with unmanned systems of varying capabilities.