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Tariff Agent: Interacting with a Future Smart Energy System at Home

Alan, AT; Costanza, E; Ramchurn, SD; Fischer, J; Rodden, T; Jennings, NR; (2016) Tariff Agent: Interacting with a Future Smart Energy System at Home. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction , 23 (4) , Article 25. 10.1145/2943770. Green open access

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Abstract

Smart systems are becoming increasingly ubiquitous and consequently transforming our lives. The level of system autonomy plays a vital role in the development of smart systems as it profoundly affects how people and these systems interact with each other. However, to date, there are very few studies on human interaction with such systems. This paper presents findings from two field studies where two different prototypes for automating energy tariff-switching were developed and evaluated in the wild. Both prototypes offer flexible autonomy by which users can shift the system's level of autonomy among three options: suggestion-only, semi-autonomy, and full autonomy, whenever they like. Our findings based on thematic analysis show that flexible autonomy is a promising way to sustain users' engagement with smart systems, despite their occasional mistakes. The findings also suggest that users take responsibility for the undesired outcomes of automated actions when delegation of autonomy can be adjusted flexibly.

Type: Article
Title: Tariff Agent: Interacting with a Future Smart Energy System at Home
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1145/2943770
Publisher version: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2943770
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2016 ACM.
Keywords: Design, Algorithms, Human Factors, Interactive intelligent systems, human–agent interaction, flexible autonomy, smart grid, field study, internet of things
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > UCL Interaction Centre
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1522279
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