Akihiro Maehigashi

Development of a Usability Questionnaire for Automation Systems

In this study, we positioned automation systems as the third-generation artifacts and developed a generalized usability questionnaire with 18 questions for automation systems as daily used artifacts. This questionnaire could be used to evaluate various types of automation systems and is useful for the development and improvement of automation systems as artifacts used in our everyday life.

Experimental investigation of misuse and disuse in using automation system

In this study, we experimentally investigated human use of automation systems and the selection strategies of such usage. We used two different types of tracking tasks. As a result, we found that the participants neither tended to misuse nor disuse the automation system. Also, we confirmed that they tended to select to use the automation system depending on their manual performance rather than the system performance. Moreover, we found that there is a relationship between the tendency to use the automation system and the selection strategy.

Investigation of Factors Affecting the Usability Evaluation of an Adaptive Cruise Control System

In this study, we investigate the factors affecting the usability evaluation of an adaptive cruise control (ACC) system. In this experiment, the participants drove a Toyota Prius car with an ACC on a highway. We sampled 215 types of driving data recorded at a frequency of 60 Hz during driving. At each of the six designated stop points on the driving course, the participants stopped their cars and evaluated the usability of the ACC system by answering the usability questionnaire for automation systems. The participants’ driving styles were measured using the driving style questionnaire. The multiple regression analyses showed that the participants’ driving styles, the ACC’s driving control, and the participants’ intervention in the driving control of the ACC influenced the usability evaluation. The results were discussed in terms of the human–automation interactions and the design principles of an ACC.

Multi-platform experiment to cross a boundary between laboratory and real situational studies: experimental discussion of cross-situational consistency of driving behaviors

We constructed an innovative experimental platform to study cross-situational consistency in driving behavior, conducted behavioral experiments, and reported the data obtained in the experiment. To discuss cross-situational consistency, we separated situations in which people use some systems to conduct tasks into three independent conceptual factors: environment, context, and system. We report the experimental results with the following systems: a laboratory system with a gaming controller and steering/pedal controllers and a real system, COMS an instrumented vehicle. The results are summarized as follows. 1) The individual behaviors in each system were stable, and consistency was retained. 2) The consistency of the behaviors was also confirmed when the participants drove using different interfaces in identical systems. 3) However, only slight correlation was observed across different systems in a specific situation where a strong high-order cognitive constraint (i.e., rapid driving) and a weak low-order cognitive constraint (driving with easy handling toward a straight-line course) were given.