Serge Debernard

Human‐machine cooperation: Toward an activity regulation assistance for different air traffic control levels

Our research is based on the air traffic control activity regulation assistance. It aims at integrating the two levels of the air traffic control organization: a tactical level managed by a so‐called radar controller and a strategic one managed by a so‐called organic controller. Concerning the tactical level, our research is directed toward a “horizontal cooperation” that consists in a dynamic allocation of control tasks between a human air traffic controller and an assistance tool. Regarding the other level, it is oriented toward a scheduling module in order to improve the initial allocation policy.

Principles of adjustable autonomy: a framework for resilient human–machine cooperation

Unmanned ground vehicles tend to be more and more autonomous, but both complete teleoperation and full autonomy are not efficient enough to deal with all possible situations. To be efficient, the human–robot system must be able to anticipate, react and recover from errors of different kinds, i.e., to be resilient. From this observation, this paper proposes a survey on the resilience of a human–machine system and the means to control the resilience. The resilience of a system can be defined as the ability to maintain or recover a stable state when subject to disturbance. Adjustable autonomy and human–machine cooperation are considered as means of resilience for the system. This paper then proposes three indicators to assess different meanings of resilience of the system: foresight and avoidance of events, reaction to events and recovery from occurrence of events. The third of these metrics takes into consideration the concept of affordances that allows a common representation for the opportunities of action between the automated system and its environment.

Resilience of a human-robot system using adjustable autonomy and human-robot collaborative control

Unmanned ground vehicles tend to be more and more autonomous. Nowadays, both complete teleoperation and full autonomy are not efficient enough to deal with all possible situations. To be efficient, the human-robot system must be able to anticipate, react, recover and even learn from errors of different kinds, i.e., to be resilient. Adjustable autonomy is a way to react to unplanned events and to optimise the task allocation between the human operator and the robot. It thus can be seen as a component of the resilience of a system which can be defined as the ability to maintain or recover a stable state when subject to disturbance. In this paper, adjustable autonomy and human-robot cooperation are considered as means to control the resilience. This paper then proposes an approach to design a resilient human-robot system through some defined criteria which aim at assessing the transitions of the modes of autonomy. Perspectives of this approach intend to provide metrics for the adjustment of autonomy in the most resilient way. First results from experiments achieved on a micro-world aim at a preliminary assessment of the different meanings of resilience of the system using the proposed metrics.

Toward a Shared Lateral Control Between Driver and Steering Assist Controller

Abstract Future driving assistance systems must be designed in order to guarantee a smooth steering control action of the controller continuously, considering the driver in-the-loop and without generating negative interference. This paper proposes the design of a shared lateral control in the framework of the active safety systems that integrates the coordination of the authority between human driver and automatic copilot. The vehicle steering assist controller is designed using a driver model in order to take into account the drivers intentions in particular during curve negotiation. This approach minimizes controller intervention while the driver is awake and steers correctly. To reduce the complexity in control computations, a simplified linear combination of the system state is determined via an optimal control by solving a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) problem. A decision making algorithm for the control authority shifting between the driver and the electronic copilot is implemented and the trade-off between the accuracy of lane following and ratio of system interference is investigated.

Cooperative Steering Assist Control System

The paper deals with the design of lateral shared vehicle control taking into account the interaction between the driver and the assistance system. The shared control system is designed in such a way to ensure a good transfer of the control authority without generating negative interference. For that a driver model that allows making valid predictions on the driver behaviour is integrated in the design process of the controller. In order to avoid complex conflict situations such as during lane change maneuver, a decision making algorithm for the control authority shifting is also proposed and implemented. Experimental results provided in the paper, using interactive simulator, show the effectiveness of the approach to ensure shared lateral vehicle control.

Model building for air-traffic controllers' workload regulation

Abstract In the supervision of industrial processes, complex situations appear that only a human operator (HO) is able to grasp. This complexity comes from the size of the process and from the diversity of factors to master. Designing help functions for the supervising operator is one way to improve the mastery of its complexity. This complexity must be grasped by the designer of help functions. But in this context, the HO introduces an additional difficulty. In order to master all the difficulties several points of view from various disciplines and techniques are necessary.

An Experimental Investigation of Dynamic Allocation of Tasks between Air Traffic Controller and A.I. Systems

Abstract The air traffic increase and the air traffic controller workload heaviness lead to provide an assistance to the air traffic controller. The purpose of our research is to propose and validate a new organization of the air traffic control, which allows air traffic controllers to stay active in the control and supervisory loop of the process, in order to maintain the present traffic safety level and to improve the global system performances. Our research consists in decomposing the problem according to the two levels of the air traffic control organization : a tactical level which aims at regulating the traffic and a strategic level which aims at filtering this traffic. The first step of our research is directed towards an horizontal cooperation that consists in a dynamic allocation of the tactical level control tasks between human air traffic controllers and an assistance tool. This paper presents the dynamic tasks allocation principles, and then describes the experimental platform for tasks allocation in air traffic control. The experimental protocol used for the experiments with qualified air traffic controllers is described and our first results are presented. Finally, a global organization involving a multi-level cooperative decision-making is proposed and discussed.

A Common Work Space to Support the Air Traffic Control

Abstract This paper deals with the research of means to build a Human-Machine Cooperation in the Air Traffic Control. The experiment described aims at evaluating a principle of dynamic allocation of conflict resolution on a large scale simulator of air traffic control. Artificial and human agents have to cooperate to exchange information, to take decision and to command the air traffic. To analyse and define cooperation between agents, the know-how and the know-how-to-cooperate are defined. These concepts give a structure which allows to build a Common Work Space to support more efficiently the cooperation.

Human-Machine Interaction in Automated Vehicle: The ABV Project

Abstract The work described in this paper is part of a research program named ABV (Low Speed Automation) where the goal is the automation of road vehicle at low speed while ensuring the sharing of driving between the driver and the assistance. This paper focuses on the problem of human-machine cooperation in the specific context of vehicle driving, with a view of shared control between driver and automation, considering the acceptability of the system and the driver distractions and drowsiness.

AMANDA V3: Toward a Common Workspace between Air Traffic Controllers

This paper presents the different tools developed in the LAMIH, in optics to assist air traffic controllers in their tasks, to decrease their workloads, and to enable them to support the ceaseless increase of the traffic. Common philosophy to all these tools is to preserve the controllers in the loop: we do not try to develop tools entirely automatic. The platform AMANDA V2 made it possible to set up and to evaluate a common workspace, which allows the two controllers of a sector to cooperate and to share the same representation of their traffic and conflicts. This space maintains common situation awareness. This tool was very appreciated by professional controllers and we now wish to extend this principle to the co-operation between two planning controllers of two adjacent sectors. It is what we present in this paper which begins with a presentation of the ATC then a point on the platforms of the laboratory and particularly AMANDA V2, to conclude with the objectives of AMANDA V3.