HMI Design Research Articles

Mental Representation Impact Analysis (MERIA), a method for analyzing mental representations for the design of HMI. A case study in aeronautics

Les pilotes de ligne en aviation civile évoluent dans des situations dynamiques et incertaines, assistés par des systèmes techniques complexes. Dans ces environnements, la gestion des risques par les opérateurs de première ligne doit être continuellement minimisée et maîtrisée, les pilotes sont soumis à d’importantes charges cognitives, pouvant mener à certaines erreurs de pilotage. Pour faciliter l’activité, les concepteurs de cockpits et d’interfaces cherchent à optimiser la conscience de situation et la représentation mentale des pilotes. Dans cette étude, nous nous intéressons aux représentations mentales des co-pilotes lors de la réalisation de scénarios risqués. Nous étudions en particulier, les écarts qui existent entre la représentation mentale « prescrite, attendue » et la représentation mentale « réelle, effective » des co-pilotes, soulignant les artéfacts qui sont à l’origine de ces écarts. Pour comprendre l’évolution de la représentation mentale au fil d’une activité, nous avons soumis une cohorte de co-pilotes à la réalisation d’un scénario risqué. L’activité de ces derniers a été filmée, commentée par des experts, puis des entretiens d’auto-confrontation ont été réalisés afin de renseigner les différents points de vue de l’activité. A travers la présentation d’une étude de cas d’un co-pilote, cet article propose la description de notre outil original de représentation graphique et chronologique de l’activité. Cet outil parvient à mettre en avant notamment : les représentations mentales du co-pilote à chaque étape du scénario, les écarts ayant impacté ou non l’activité, l’usage des outils et l’impact que cela peut avoir sur les représentations mentales. Cet outil présente de nombreux avantages : une comparaison efficace d’états mentaux relatifs à deux ou plusieurs opérateurs, une quasi-exhaustivité dans la présentation des différents jeux de données recueillis et analysés, une vision synthétique et précise de l’activité déployée. L’outil d’analyse est applicable à d’autres domaines que l’aéronautique et offre des prises considérables pour identifier les erreurs d’origine cognitive et les solutionner à la source.

CodeSys based HMI design and sensor upgrades for a PLC and Atmega2560 controlled industrial conveyor

Engineers nowadays must be able to solve the challenges set by industry 4.0, in order to make existing devices viable for this new trend. This requires a complex, system-based way of thinking. Nowadays, in most cases, we usually find company-specific hardware and software in industrial automated production. However, in different industries, it is not unheard of that a given manufacturing cell, robot, or manipulator became unserviceable, because a manufacturer is no longer on the market, making it impossible to find replacement controllers, software, or updated firmware for our industrial robot, or manipulator. The following project aims to provide a solution to the problem detailed above, where an unserviceable Flexlink conveyor’s controller is replaced with both an Arduino and a PLC, and before realisation of the new control method, simulations are possible before connecting the actual controller.

CodeSys based HMI design and sensor upgrades for a PLC and Atmega2560 controlled industrial conveyor

CodeSys based HMI design and sensor upgrades for a PLC and Atmega2560 controlled industrial conveyor

Research on compatibility in man-machine interface design of products

As a platform for information exchange between people and products, human-machine interface plays a more and more important role in human machine interaction. The compatibility of display and manipulation in human machine interface determines the ease of use to a large extent. Through the case study of HMI design for different products, this paper analyzes the spatial compatibility, the movement compatibility and the common measures to improve compatibility. Spatial compatibility refers to the correspondence of stimulus and response elements in physical layout on a display panel. Motion compatibility refers to the degree of correspondence between the motion effects generated by a controller and people’s psychological expectations. It is pointed out that the common measures to improve the compatibility of human-machine interface are: shape coding, position coding, color coding, symbol coding, and taking into account human physiological characteristics and usage habits.

The Design of LEAF Motion Control System

The scientific installation project (HIAF)will be undertaken by the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. LEAF (Low Energy intense-highly-charged Accelerator Facility) is a pre-research project for the future large-scale scientific installation about HIAF. It was received the support of the National Major Instrument Equipment R&D Fund. In the accelerator control system, motion control plays an important role. Motion control is a branch of automation. It mainly uses servos and motors to control the position or speed of the machine. The motion control system designed in this paper is mainly used to control the gas in and out, slits motion control, beam diagnostics and other equipment. It mainly studies the hardware architecture of the motion control system, the application of EPICS in the motion control system, the HMI design of the CSS and the test of the motion control system.

Suggestion of Design Evaluation Plan based on Star Life Cycle to introduce the Information Minimalism Concept of KOREA Nuclear Plant

The design of Korea Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) main control rooms (MCR) has been changed to be fully digitalized. Five or six display devices are assigned to each operator in NPP MCR to provide the information of safety parameter and plant status, and various control functions by connecting computerized control devices. Under this circumstance, the distributed displays can induce a dispersion of the operators’ attention and increase the workload while conducting monitoring and control tasks efficiently. In addition, to support human operators to reduce their workload and increase the performance, the concepts of the ecological interface design (EID) and the operator-centered design were applied to the design HMI display. However these designs are applied to a limited set of screens and did not differ largely from the traditional HMI design in that the layout of the information is somewhere similar to P&IDs. In this paper, we propose a design evaluation plan based on star life cycle to introduce the information minimalism concept for designing an HMI display.

The Application of QFD and Information Entropy in Improved Design for the Manned Capsule HMI

In order to introduce the user needs into the improved design of HMI (man-machine interface) quickly and reasonably, Be intended for Manned Capsule HMI, the particular field of engineering technology. A product design method and QFD technology based on information entropy is proposed. Aimed at the design characteristics of HMI components, using the QFD technical and to guide the design process of the man-machine interface, through information entropy theory to determine the customer requirements in quality function deployment. Research shows this method can reduce the subjective judgment in the process of HMI design, and through the QFD technical and information entropy theory can enhance the effectiveness and objectivity.

Cooperation between driver and automated driving system: Implementation and evaluation

Recent years have witnessed rapid advancement of automated driving technologies. In this context, driver-vehicle cooperation as a new interaction paradigm offers an opportunity to improve the driving performance through the exploitation of human-automation synergy. This paper presents the implementation and evaluation of a new cooperation principle between the driver and the automated driving system. Within a use case concerning highway merging management, we describe the scenario modelling, system functional and HMI design. We evaluate the cooperation principle and the designed HMI through a user study on driving simulator. Based on test results, we discuss user’s perception of the cooperation principle and the potential of this principle to handle highway merging situations. Through this paper, we also aim to demonstrate the strengths of driving simulation in terms of interaction design for automated driving systems.

Design of HMI Based on PID Control of Temperature

Design of HMI Based on PID Control of Temperature

Coordination of I&C Design With the Obligatory Consideration of Human Factors: A Project Management Approach

Human factors engineering (HFE), such as other engineering disciplines involved in plant design, cannot be considered retroactively. The engineering principles and methods derived from deep knowledge of the cognitive and perceptual capabilities and limitations of the plant’s “human element” are applied instead throughout the plant design. Focusing HFE efforts, the plant’s HMI is designed to ensure effective and error-free performance of the monitoring, control, and administrative tasks allocated to the control-room crew. A project’s HFE program prescribes three main steps (1) The task analysis and the analyses of plant monitoring and control functions to identify those to be performed manually (all others are performed automatically, or in a combination of manual and automatic, while still manually monitored) and determine in turn the HMI inventory of information displays, controls, alarms, and operating procedures required to support their performance. (2) The guided design of the plant’s HMI, ensuring its compliance with HFE principles and the completeness and correctness of the task support it provides. (3) The subsequent evaluation of operator performance, trained to follow the operating procedures and use of the HMI. Authors’ experience shows that the three following required steps pose challenges to project execution: (1) the acquisition and analysis of the multidisciplinary functional requirements (related to plant monitoring and control); (2) the likely interdisciplinary analysis and how fulfillment of these requirements shall be allocated to I&C automation systems or operators (or both); and (3) the HFE-guided HMI design and validation. An additional fourth challenge poses a timely and cost-effective application of HFE to I&C engineering, which can be achieved by adequate planning and project management procedures. This paper aims to summarize some of our industrial experiences gained in new builds and modernization projects of nuclear power plants around the world.

ICONE23-1912 Coordination of I&C Design with the Obligatory Consideration of Human Factors : A Project Management Approach

Human Factors Engineering (HFE), like other engineering disciplines involved in plant design, cannot be considered retroactively. The engineering principles and methods derived from deep knowledge of the cognitive and perceptual capabilities and limitations of the plant's "human element" are applied instead throughout plant design. Focusing HFE efforts on the plant's I&C, the plant's HMI is designed to ensure effective and error-free performance of the monitoring, control, and administrative tasks allocated to the control room crew. Generally speaking, a project's HFE program prescribes three main steps: (i) the analyses of plant monitoring and control functions in order to identify those to be performed manually (all others are performed automatically while still manually monitored) and determine in turn the HMI inventory of information displays, controls, alarms, and operating procedures required to support their performance, (ii) the guided design of the plant's HMI, ensuring its compliance with HFE principles and the completeness and correctness of the task support it provides, and (iii) the subsequent evaluation of operators performance, trained to follow the operating procedures and use the HMI referred to. The I&C systems designed to monitor and control the plant processes and implement, among other functions, the plant's HMI, are likely validated, governed by I&C norms and the project's V&V guidelines. Past experience shows that the three following obligatory steps pose challenges to project execution: (i) the acquisition and analysis of the multidisciplinary functional requirements (related to plant monitoring and control); (ii) the likely interdisciplinary analysis whether and how fulfillment of these requirements shall be allocated to I&C automation systems or operators (or both), and (iii) the HFE-guided HMI design and validation. A timely and cost-effective application of HFE to I&C engineering can be achieved by adequate planning and project management. This paper aims to summarize some of our experiences

HMI Design with Multi-modal Function Selection

HMI Design with Multi-modal Function Selection

HMI Design of Lead-Acid Battery Retreading System Based on DWIN DGUS Screen

Lead-acid battery retreading system is used to improve the discharge performance of lead-acid batteries. And in the system there are too many electrical parameters, such as electric current, voltage and so on, have to been set up. So HMI design plays a significant role in the whole system. This paper offers a method of using DWIN DGUS screen to finish the HMI design of lead-acid battery retreading system. And it introduces the DWIN_V4.9 and OS secondary development platform in detail. Then it describes how to use these two tools to achieve basic functions, such as touching and passwords landing. After applying the HMI design to the system, switching interfaces, using passwords, inputting parameters and other operations all have been achieved successfully.

A Study of Cultural Influence in Automotive HMI: Measuring Correlation between Culture and HMI Usability

This paper describes a comparative study aimed at identifying cultural differences in automotive-HMI usability. This was part of a larger research to investigate in depth the problems users experience with vehicle-HMI in emerging-regions and help in the development of HMI design guidelines to include cultural consideration. Culture is recognised as a significant influence on user behaviour, as it correlates with certain preferences and abilities. A system may be fully usable for one group of users and environmental conditions but totally unsuitable for another. Even if a conscientious engineer designs a proper human-machine-interface for use in a given environment, the designer is often unable to foresee effects of a different culture on vehicle's HMI usability. Culture has different patterns of social behaviour and interaction which have led many researchers to develop cultural-models to describe these differences. With these in mind, current focus of this study seeks to address three interrelated questions, 1) Are there elements within automotive-HMI that can be identified as culturally specific? 2) Does culture influences user usability performances and how or if cultural-model can be applied to explain the findings? 3) How cultural-model can assist in understanding cross-cultural differences in automotive-HMI usability. This study is based on Hofstede cultural-model. The research assessed their application in cross-cultural differences and applicability in automotive-HMI. To identify cultural sensitive design elements for usability and universal access, systematic usability experimentation was performed in a vehicle-HMI-system. The result showed different cultural groups have different behavioural tendencies and performances while using HMI in a vehicle.

HMI Design of MIRROR PLANT for Facilitating Forecast of Plant Operation and Application to Vinyl Acetate Monomer Process

HMI Design of MIRROR PLANT for Facilitating Forecast of Plant Operation and Application to Vinyl Acetate Monomer Process

Application of Economic CNC System Based on PLC and Touch Screen

With the information technology industry continuously developing and the level of industrial automation continuously improving, PLC and touch screen become more common. In this paper, the touch screen as a PC and PLC as the next crew, a CNC punch press dedicated economic CNC system was designed.The relevant procedures and HMI design was completed based on a comprehensive analysis of punch press feature. The Economical CNC system not only has the advantages of simple operation,easy maintenance and good stability but also can reduce the cost and enhance the adaptability of the enterprise market of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises.

A Comparison of Subjective Mental Workload Measures in Driving Contexts

Objective: This study aims to compare the usefulness of subjective measures which are comprised of existing methods like NASA-TLX, Bedford-scale and ZEIS and newly developed method like DALI in measuring drivers' mental workload in terms of validity, sensitivity and diagnosticity. Background: Nowadays, with the development of intelligent vehicle and HMI, mental workload of driver has become more and more important. For this reason, the studies on drivers' mental workload about driving situation and the use of information technology equipment such as mobile phones and navigations were conducted intensively. However, the studies on measuring drivers' mental workload were rarely conducted. Moreover, most of studies on comparison of subjective measures were used with performance based measure. However, performance based measures can cause distraction effect with subjective measures. Method: Participants (N=19) were engaged in a driving simulation experiment in 2 driving contexts (downtown driving and highway driving context). The experiment has 2 sessions according to driving contexts. The level of difficulties by driving contexts were adjusted according to existence of intersections, traffic signs and signals, billboards and the number of doublings. Moreover, as criteria of concurrent validity and sensitivity, the EEG data were recorded before and during the sessions. Results: The results indicated that all subjective methods were correlates with EEG in high-way driving. On the contrary to this, in downtown driving, all subjective methods were not correlates with EEG. In terms of sensitivity, multi-dimensional scales (NASA-TLX, DALI) were the only ones to identify differences between high way and downtown driving. Finally, in terms of diagnosticity, DALI was the most suitable method for evaluating drivers' mental workload in driving context. Conclusion: The DALI as newly developed method dedicated to evaluate driver's mental workload was superior in terms of sensitivity and diagnosticity. However, researchers should consider the characteristics of each subjective method synthetically according to research objective by selecting the method in subjective measures. Application: The results of this study could be applied to the intelligent vehicle and next generation of HMI design to decrease mental workload of driver and for the development of new subjective method in vehicle domain.

Considerations in HMI Design of a Reverse Braking Assist (RBA) System

Considerations in HMI Design of a Reverse Braking Assist (RBA) System

The Design and Implementation of Interactive HMI Based on Bluetooth Technology

The response time and limited resources in embedded system graphic interactive interface is not a small risk. This paper describes an implementation based on Philips ARM7TDMI LPC2104 microcontroller and lightweight Bluetooth interactive graphical interface. The paper indicates from the hardware design, software application development two aspects and puts forward a graphical interface based on Bluetooth technology system implementation process, comparing the different systems of other graphic design features.

The use of affective interaction design in car user interfaces

Recent developments in the car industry have put Human Machine Interfaces under the spotlight. Developing gratifying human-car interactions has become one of the more prominent areas that car manufacturers want to invest in. However, concepts like emotional design remain foreign to the industry. In this study 12 experts on the field of automobile HMI design were interviewed in order to investigate their needs and opinions of emotional design. Results show that emotional design has yet to be introduced for this context of use. Designers need a tool customized for the intricacies of the car HMI field that can provide them with support and guidance so that they can create emotionally attractive experiences for drivers and passengers alike.