Mode Awareness Research Articles

Understanding situational and mode awareness for safe human-robot collaboration: case studies on assembly applications

In order for humans and robots to collaborate on an assembly line, safety of operations is a prerequisite. In this article, two assembly stations where a large industrial robots collaborate with humans will be analysed with the aim to 1. determine the characteristics of hazards associated with human-robot interaction and 2. design solutions that can mitigate risks associated with these hazards. To support the aim of this article, a literature review will attempt to characterize automation and detail the problems associated with human-automation interaction. The analysis points at situational awareness and mode-awareness as contributing factors to operator and process safety. These underlying mechanisms, if recognised by the risk assessment team as hazards, can mitigate risks of operator injury or production delays. This article details the function of visual and physical interfaces that allow operators to comprehend system-state in order to avoid undesirable situations.

Design and verification of driver interfaces for adaptive cruise control systems

In a highly automated system, mode confusion is a significant human error factor that contributes to accidents. To suppress mode confusion in adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems of vehicles, we developed a new driver interface based on a formal approach to analyze and verify human-automation interaction. To enhance the driver’s mode awareness, we developed a new ACC interface that eliminates inconsistent mode transitions by reconfiguring the modes. Then, a human-in-loop experiment was conducted in a simulated environment where a driving simulator was used to evaluate the state and mode awareness of drivers with the old and new interfaces. The experimental results showed that the proposed interface model, which was verified a formal method, was very effective in reducing mode confusion compared with the traditional interface model.

Reconciling situation awareness in humans versus machines via mode awareness and schemata

We recast situation awareness (SA), mode awareness (MA) and schema theory in terms of intelligent agents under supervisory control. This formulation allows SA to be held by machines, while retaining the richness of human cognition versus machine computation. This development yields three outcomes. The first is to unify the Endsley et al. theory of shared SA with the Stanton et al. theory of distributed SA. The second is an improved understanding of how teams can be equipped for distributed, cognitive operations, from the content and tempo of information transactions. Finally, we have a clarified notion of the role of consciousness in SA.

Automation-Level Transference Effects in Simulated Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Control

Supervisory control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) raises many questions concerning the balance of system autonomy with human interaction for effective operator situation awareness and system performance. The reported experiment used a UAV simulation environment to evaluate two applications of autonomy levels across two primary control tasks: allocation (assignment of sensor tasks to vehicles) and router (determining vehicles’ flight plans). In one application, the autonomy level was the same across these two tasks. In the other, the autonomy levels differed, one of the two tasks being more automated than the other. Trials also involved completion of other mission-related secondary tasks as participants supervised three UAVs. The results showed that performance on both the primary tasks and many secondary tasks was better when the level of automation was the same across the two sequential primary tasks. These findings suggest that having the level of automation similar across closely coupled tasks reduces mode awareness problems, which can negate the intended benefits of a fine-grained application of automation. Several research issues are identified to further explore the impact of automation-level transference in supervisory control applications involving the application of automation across numerous tasks.

Effects of Similarity in Action-Effect Configuration on Mode Awareness

Effects of Similarity in Action-Effect Configuration on Mode Awareness

A FITS Scenario-Based Training Program Enhances GPS Pilot Proficiency in the General Aviation Pilot

General Aviation (GA) pilots working toward their instrument rating in aircraft equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology often receive little, if any, formal flight instruction on the use of GPS technology. The goal of this study was to empirically evaluate a single pilot crew, FAA Industry Training Standards (FITS) scenario-based training program designed to increase the knowledge and safety of pilots using this technology by focusing on GPS mode awareness, situational assessment, risk and time management, and situational awareness. This study included forty-six pilots who had completed their instrument rating in a GPSequipped aircraft within the last 12 months. The results of this study revealed that utilizing a GPS FITS scenariobased training program for GPS training significantly reduced omission errors and incorrect or inappropriate use of the GPS when compared to controls. These results support the premise that a specific GPS FITS-based training course be required for pilots unfamiliar with GPS navigation, and those pilots should be required to obtain a logbook endorsement before acting as pilot in command of aircraft with IFR-approved GPS units.

Mode Monitoring and Call-Outs: An Eye-Tracking Study of Two-Crew Automated Flight Deck Operations

Mode awareness has been suggested as a critical factor in safe operations of automated aircraft. This study investigated mode awareness by measuring eye point of gaze of both pilots during simulated commercial flights, while recording call-outs and tracking aircraft performance. The results of this study show that the compliance to manufacturer or air carrier procedures regarding mode monitoring and call-outs was very low. However, this did not seem to have a negative effect on the flight path or safety during our observations. Crews exhibited a proliferation of strategies to keep track of status and behavior of the automation, often with little reliance on the flight mode annunciations of the primary flight display. The data confirm the limitations of current flight mode annunciator designs, and suggest that mode awareness is a more complex phenomenon than what can be captured by measuring eye point of gaze and communication alone.

Contributing Factors for Mode Awareness of a Vehicle with a Low-Speed Range and a High-Speed Range Acc Systems

This paper tries to clarify contributing factors to achieving driver's mode awareness while he or she is driving a vehicle with a low-speed range and a high-speed range Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) systems. We investigate the following three probable factors: (1) control logic for a low-speed range ACC when it loses sight of the target vehicle to follow, (2) previous acquaintance with the high-speed range ACC, and (3) control mode utilized more frequently. An experiment has been conducted with a fixed-based driving simulator to investigate effects of these factors on the driver's mode awareness.

Perspective Guidance Displays Show the Way Ahead

LITTLE over two decades ago, programmable electronic flight instrument display systems (EFIS) were introduced in commercial aviation aircraft such as the Boeing B757/767. The introduction comprised three new instruments: the primary flight display (PFD), replacing the traditional attitude director indicator (ADI); the navigation display (ND), replacing the horizontal situation indicator (HSI); and the engine indicating and crew alerting system (EICAS), replacing the engine gauges and a whole slew of other indicators and controls. This introduction changed the face of the cockpit flight instrument panels in civil aviation, earning its nickname of “glass cockpit”. However, more than the mere looks of the flight deck changed. The flight management system (FMS) got a central role in the flight practice, and piloting changed, from interaction with the aircraft supported by some automation to interaction mainly with the automated systems. The introduction of the glass cockpit and the new way of flying civil transport aircraft through automation was reluctantly accepted by the pilot community. Besides early complaints about the readability of EFIS displays, the main issues were the problems of keeping the pilot in the loop, and explaining what the automation is doing at any time, supporting the flight crew “mode awareness”. Still, as accident statistics now show, safety has increased and nowadays flight decks with EFIS and FMS are the norm for commercial and business aviation, and are introduced even in general aviation. With the introduction of the glass cockpit came an increased level of navigational situation awareness, in particular through the added functionality of the navigation display. Its forebear, the HSI, showed an abstract presentation of relative bearings to selected beacons and the distance expressed in dots to VOR radials or the localizer. The ND replaced this by a much more intuitive display of relative geographical position with respect to waypoints on the planned route, approach fixes, markers, and the runway centerline. A planned approach was now visible on the display rather than just on an approach plate. As altitude and speed constraints could be assigned to waypoints in an approach procedure, the energy management during an approach, which depended so far on rough mental computations, was significantly improved as well. Although the electronic instruments offer much more functionality and integrated information than their electromechanical counterparts, they still are not more than two-dimensional “orthogonal” presentations of attitude and geographical position which the pilot must mentally integrate. There must be a world of possibilities in the electronic instrumentation that we have only begun to explore. Unlike autonomous robotic vehicles, humans are capable of interpreting and moving through dynamic three-dimensional environments with little or no conscious mental effort. This talent to intuitively do things right, to not become disoriented or collide with obstacles while moving through the most complex of environments, is a product from ages of evolution. Besides mental reasoning, judgment and a talent for producing solutions when confronted with unforeseen situation (in other words, improvisation) this represents one of the important assets of the human pilot. However, it was up to now not exploited to its fullest potential because of the “unnatural” way of presenting the information to the pilot. Therefore, the current practice to have different abstract, two-dimensional presentations of the aircraft guidance and navigation situation needs to be revised. A future primary flight display should present the aircraft’s spatio-temporal situation, i.e. its motion in space and time, in a way that is intuitively understandable, that supports pilots in their manual and supervisory control tasks, enhances their situation awareness even more, and is compatible with the various tasks imposed by the air traffic management system, now and in the future. Advances in this field have been made with perspective flight-path displays such as the “tunnel-in-thesky,” the “pathway-in-the-sky,” or the “highway-in-the-sky”. These displays integrate the guidance information with

Team play with a powerful and independent agent: a full-mission simulation study.

One major problem with pilot-automation interaction on modern flight decks is a lack of mode awareness; that is, a lack of knowledge and understanding of the current and future status and behavior of the automation. A lack of mode awareness is not simply a pilot problem; rather, it is a symptom of a coordination breakdown between humans and machines. Recent changes in automation design can therefore be expected to have an impact on the nature of problems related to mode awareness. To examine how new automation properties might affect pilot-automation coordination, we performed a full-mission simulation study on one of the most advanced automated aircraft, the Airbus A-320. The results of this work indicate that mode errors and "automation surprises" still occur on these advanced aircraft. However, there appear to be more opportunities for delayed or missing interventions with undesirable system activities, possibly because of higher system autonomy and coupling.

Multisensory Feedback in Support of Pilot-Automation Coordination: The Case of Uncommanded Mode Transitions

The introduction of advanced automation technology to the modern cockpit has created new attentional and monitoring demands for pilots whose primary role has shifted towards supervisory control. Observed breakdowns in pilots' mode awareness, i.e., in their knowledge and understanding of the current and future system configuration, suggest that these demands are not adequately supported by existing automation feedback. In particular, current feedback fails to highlight unexpected changes in system status and behavior due, in part, to designers' tendency to increasingly rely on focal visual attention instead of exploiting the wide range of sensory modalities available to human operators. In this study, we examined the feasibility and effectiveness of multisensory feedback for providing attentional guidance to pilots in case of unexpected mode transitions. Tactile or peripheral visual cues were presented in the context of a simulated flight scenario involving varying levels of competing visual demands. The results of this study indicate that the introduction of multisensory feedback is one effective way of capturing pilots' attention without necessarily affecting their performance on concurrent tasks.

The VNAV Tutor: addressing a mode awareness difficulty for pilots of glass cockpit aircraft

One of the major tasks of pilots of modern aircraft is monitoring and understanding the status and behavior of the auto-flight system, i.e., mode awareness. In order to maintain mode awareness in the dynamic environment, pilots must be continuously vigilant of indications from several locations within the cockpit. Lacking accurate and complete system knowledge and interfaces that clearly present the system state and constraints, pilots may misunderstand the control modes, pilots often cite vertical path navigation (VNAV) as a flight management system function that "surprises" them. The VNAV Tutor, a computer-based training system, was developed to address this issue. The VNAV Tutor attempts to improve pilots' understanding of VNAV control modes and the interaction of the mode control panel functions with the flight management system during VNAV usage. An evaluation showed that the VNAV Tutor enhanced both the conceptual understanding and the operational use of the vertical navigation function by pilots transitioning to aircraft with sophisticated auto-flight systems.

“From Tool to Agent”: The Evolution of (Cockpit) Automation and Its Impact on Human-Machine Coordination

In a variety of domains, researchers have observed breakdowns in human-automation coordination and cooperation. One form of breakdown is a lack of mode awareness which can result in ‘automation surprises’. These are, in part, related to a lack of adequate feedback on system status and behavior. The need for effective and timely feedback has become even more pressing with the evolution of systems that operate at increasingly high levels of authority and autonomy. In the absence of improved feedback design, however, the gap between required and available information has widened. To explore the impact of this trend towards ‘strong yet silent’ machine agents, a line of research was conducted on pilot-automation coordination on the Airbus A-320, an aircraft that exemplifies these trends. This research involved a survey of pilots' line experiences with the A-320 automation, observations of transition training to the airplane, and an experimental simulation study on pilots' mode awareness and pilot-automation coordination. The results of this work indicate a trend from mode errors of commission (which represented a more frequent problem on early generation ‘glass cockpit’ aircraft) to errors of omission. In other words, pilots were more likely to fail to observe and interfere with uncommanded and undesired automation and aircraft behavior. Such errors of omission also seem to have played a role in recent incidents and accidents. They illustrate the need for improved communicative abilities in autonomous and powerful systems to enable them to actively support the coordination between human and machine.

How in the World Did We Ever Get into That Mode? Mode Error and Awareness in Supervisory Control

New technology is flexible in the sense that it provides practitioners with a large number of functions and options for carrying out a given task under different circumstances. However, this flexibility has a price. Because the human supervisor must select the mode best suited to a particular situation, he or she must know more than before about system operations and the operation of the system as well as satisfy new monitoring and attentional demands to track which mode the automation is in and what it is doing to manage the underlying processes. When designers proliferate modes without supporting these new cognitive demands, new mode-related error forms and failure paths can result. Mode error has been discussed in human-computer interaction for some time; however, the increased capabilities and the high level of autonomy of new automated systems appear to have created new types of mode-related problems. We explore these new aspects based on results from our own and related studies of human-automation interaction. In particular, we draw on empirical data from a series of studies of pilot-automation interaction in commercial glass cockpit aircraft to illustrate the nature, circumstances, and potential consequences of mode awareness problems in supervisory control of automated resources. The result is an expanded view of mode error that takes into account the new demands imposed by more automated systems.

Pilot Interaction With Cockpit Automation II: An Experimental Study of Pilots' Model and Awareness of the Flight Management System

Technological developments have made it possible to automate more and more functions on the commercial aviation flight deck and in other dynamic high-consequence domains. This increase in the degrees of freedom in design has shifted questions away from narrow technological feasibility. Many concerned groups, from designers and operators to regulators and researchers, have begun to ask questions about how we should use the possibilities afforded by technology skillfully to support and expand human performance. In this article, we report on an experimental study that addressed these questions by examining pilot interaction with the current generation of flight deck automation. Previous results on pilot-automation interaction derived from pilot surveys, incident reports, and training observations have produced a corpus of features and contexts in which human-machine coordination is likely to break down (e.g., automation surprises). We used these data to design a simulated flight scenario that contained a variety of probes designed to reveal pilots' mental model of one major component of flight deck automation: the Flight Management System (FMS). The events within the scenario were also designed to probe pilots' ability to apply their knowledge and understanding in specific flight contexts and to examine their ability to track the status and behavior of the automated system (mode awareness). Although pilots were able to 'make the system work' in standard situations, the results reveal a variety of latent problems in pilot-FMS interaction that can affect pilot performance in nonnormal time critical situations.

Clothing Influence in Adolescent Leadership Roles

The interrelationships between four clothing variables (clothing mode awareness, clothing mode conformity, prestige clothing, clothing attractiveness) and three measures of leadership (representational leadership, organizational leadership, composite leadership) were investi gated. The data were collected from a population consisting of the sophomore class of a cen tral Michigan high school containing 119 boys and 109 girls. Correlation coefficients and multiple regression were the major forms of statistical analyses used to determine the interrela tionships between the variables and to identify the clothing variables which were significant in explaining variation in leadership. Clothing attractiveness and clothing mode awareness were both significant in explaining variation in leadership, but clothing mode conformity was not.