Ralph Bruder

A strategy for human factors/ergonomics: developing the discipline and profession

Human factors/ergonomics (HFE) has great potential to contribute to the design of all kinds of systems with people (work systems, product/service systems), but faces challenges in the readiness of its market and in the supply of high-quality applications. HFE has a unique combination of three fundamental characteristics: (1) it takes a systems approach (2) it is design driven and (3) it focuses on two closely related outcomes: performance and well-being. In order to contribute to future system design, HFE must demonstrate its value more successfully to the main stakeholders of system design. HFE already has a strong value proposition (mainly well-being) and interactivity with the stakeholder group of ‘system actors’ (employees and product/service users). However, the value proposition (mainly performance) and relationships with the stakeholder groups of ‘system experts’ (experts fromtechnical and social sciences involved in system design), and ‘system decision makers’ (managers and other decision makers involved in system design, purchase, implementation and use), who have a strong power to influence system design, need to be developed. Therefore, the first main strategic direction is to strengthen the demand for high-quality HFE by increasing awareness among powerful stakeholders of the value of high-quality HFE by communicating with stakeholders, by building partnerships and by educating stakeholders. The second main strategic direction is to strengthen the application of high-quality HFE by promoting the education of HFE specialists, by ensuring high-quality standards of HFE applications and HFE specialists, and by promoting HFE research excellence at universities and other organisations. This strategy requires cooperation between the HFE community at large, consisting of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA), local (national and regional) HFE societies, and HFE specialists. We propose a joint world-wide HFE development plan, in which the IEA takes a leadership role. Practitioner Summary: Human factors/ergonomics (HFE) has much to offer by addressing major business and societal challenges regarding work and product/service systems. HFE potential, however, is underexploited. This paper presents a strategy for the HFE community to strengthen demand and application of high-quality HFE, emphasising its key elements: systems approach, design driven, and performance and well-being goals.

The European Assembly Worksheet

Assembly tasks are most common in industrialised countries. Even in highly automated and mechanised branches like the automotive, high or uniform load situations are common and result in high physical workload. In industrialised countries almost one-third of the total sick leave is due to musculo-skeletal complaints and disorders, which might result from poor ergonomic design. In order to tackle that problem, the European Assembly Worksheet (EAWS) as a screening tool for physical workload was developed. The EAWS grants load points for unfavourable physical workload and due to the total score assigns a traffic light risk scheme to work situations. In the recent years, the EAWS was checked for compliance with existing internationally accepted methods and legal European requirements. In the companies involved, the EAWS serves as an ergonomic screening tool. It links corrective (shop floor) and proactive (Tech center) ergonomics, points out ergonomic problems and offers design solutions to overcome them.

Driver assistance via optical information with spatial reference

The occurrence of accidents caused by deficiencies in risk recognition by the driver can be prevented by presenting relevant information in real time to the driver. In this paper it is proposed to draw the drivers attention towards relevant traffic objects, which might be a safety hazard, by a LED strip which is affixed 360° around the interior of the cars cabin. With this approach a higher number of use cases can be covered than with existing HMIs. The effectiveness of this system is evaluated in a driving simulator study with 13 subjects in four critical traffic situations. The gaze attention times are ascertained with eye tracking technology; mental effort and acceptance are determined by questionnaires and the comprehensibility by semi-structured interviews. There are indications of shortened gaze attention times using the LED strip compared to the baseline without driver support. The subjects understand the information submitted mostly intuitively. The acceptance ratings overall are in a positive range, but differ between scenarios.

How to conduct a car? A design example for maneuver based driver-vehicle interaction

Conduct-by-Wire is a vehicle guidance paradigm, which investigates the possibility of controlling an automobile by maneuver commands. The focus of this paper is to show one possible interaction strategy for maneuver-based vehicle guidance between driver and vehicle by means of discrete maneuvers. Therefore, the paper starts with a short introduction to the advantages of maneuver-based vehicle guidance and proceeds to the current design option for maneuver-based driver-vehicle interaction chosen by the TU Darmstadt. This includes the presentation of the user interface as well as the basic assumptions for maneuver-based interaction. This paper is finished by a specific example for the maneuver “Lane Change right”, which includes system behavior, as well as, information displaying and some restricting facts which are presented together with possible countermeasures.

New Interaction Concepts by Using the Wii Remote

The interaction concept of the video game console Nintendo Wii has created a furor in the interface design community due to its intuitive interface: the Wii Remote. At the Institute of Ergonomics (IAD) of the Darmstadt University of Technology, several projects investigated the potential of interaction concepts with the Wii Remote, especially in nongaming contexts. In a first study an interactive whiteboard according to [1] was recreated, modified and evaluated. In this case, the Wii Remote is not the human-machine-interface but the sensor that detects an infrared emitting (IR) pencil. A survey with 15 subjects was conducted in which different IR pencils were evaluated. In a second study the potential of a gesture based human-computer interaction with the help of the Wii-Remote according to [2] was evaluated by using a multimedia software application. In a survey with 30 subjects, the Wii gesture interaction was compared to a standard remote control.

Application of the user-centred design process according ISO 9241-210 in air traffic control.

Designing a usable human machine interface for air traffic control is challenging and should follow approved methods. The ISO 9241-210 standard promises high usability of products by integrating future users and following an iterative process. This contribution describes the proceeding and first results of the analysis and application of ISO 9241-210 to develop a planning tool for air traffic controllers.

Verification of a maneuver catalog for a maneuver-based vehicle guidance system

A quickly increasing number of advanced driver assistance systems are implemented in modern vehicles. Already today, this can lead to a mental overload of drivers, since every single system has its own control elements. In the future, innovative vehicle interaction concepts, with a global design philosophy, will be necessary. Conduct-by-Wire (CbW) is an approach to relieve drivers from stabilization tasks, as the vehicle will be controlled by assigning concrete elements, the maneuvers, which are executed automatically. This could possibly lead to a more cognitive way of driving, keeping the driver closer in the loop. The basic requirement for this concept is the development of a maneuver catalog from the drivers point of view, in order to enable easy, even intuitive driving. Therefore, this paper describes how a driver would divide a specific track into single maneuvers, based upon an already existing catalog of commands. An innovative experimental concept is developed, consisting of a field and laboratory study, using the ‘thinking aloud’ method, an eye tracking and a decision point analysis.

User acceptance of cooperative maneuver- based driving - a summary of three studies

Modern cars offer drivers support with the help of a number of driver assistance systems. Those systems aim to relieve drivers through assumption of sub parts of the driving task (e.g. in case of an Adaptive Cruise Control by regulation of vehicle speed and time gap to preceding vehicle). Today, systems are controlled and monitored separately which leads to efforts to combine the functionality of all systems in an overlying assistance for drivers. The approach of the University of Technology Darmstadt is called Conduct-by-Wire and can be seen as a cooperative maneuver-based driving paradigm, where the driver gives maneuver command to the systems which are automatically executed. This paper summarizes the results of three studies which investigated the user acceptance of this driving paradigm. Overall, it can be said that the acceptance of the system depends on personal traits of the driver and on the driving situation. Almost all participants are willing to use Conduct-by- Wire for routine tasks such as commuting, which makes the systems interesting for company cars. Still, there remain a number of drivers who are not willing to use such a highly automated system at all.

Algorithm for Driver Intention Detection with Fuzzy Logic and Edit Distance

Driver intention detection is helpful to parameterize advanced driver assistance systems to reduce the warning dilemma and so to raise the drivers acceptance for such systems. An algorithm to predict drivers intention with Fuzzy Logic and Edit Distance is presented. The main features and the functionality is explained. The necessary steps for training and validation of the algorithm are presented. The performance of the first configuration is discussed and the future steps for improving the performance are shown.

Capability Related Stress Analysis to Support Design of Work Systems

Two complementary studies have been conducted to analyze the effects of the demographic change in the automotive industry.