D3COS · Designing Dynamic Distributed Cooperative Human-Machine Systems

Transportation based on cars, aircraft and ships is a key factor for modern human societies. Human operators have historically been in charge of the two main facets of transportation: vehicle control and traffic control. Technological innovations have progressively allowed the introduction of advanced automated assistance systems leading to a complex interplay of humans and automation which has been shown to lead in many cases to new types of human errors, incidents and sometimes accidents. It has been recognized that further automation alone cannot solve the problem and the crucial issue is how to achieve an adequate level of human-machine cooperation with shared authority. The proposal addresses missing key enablers for market penetration of innovative dynamic Distributed Cooperative Human-Machine Systems (DCoS). The proposal intends to develop affordable methods, techniques and tools which go beyond assistance systems and consequently address the design, development and evaluation of cooperative systems from a multi-agent perspective where human and machine agents are in charge of common tasks, assigned to the system as a whole. A high quality user interface is inevitable to meet user expectations and to gain market acceptance of cooperative systems with increased levels of automation. Already today the development of a user interface of Embedded Systems is a substantial cost driver that is constantly increasing. The proposal strives to boost cost efficiency of highly innovative DCoS with several interactive Embedded Systems. This will be achieved by supporting and closing the industrial development process chain from (1) DCoS composition over (2) interaction design to (3) system design and (4) interface design and by allowing to evaluate the overall system safety, efficiency and effectiveness already in early process phases. An Innovation Eco System for cooperative embedded HMI will be established during the project and will be maintained afterwards.