When biology meets control theory

Aerospace Engineerin

Evaluating Stick Stiffness and Position Guidance for Feedback on Flight Envelope Protection

Modern aircraft use a variety of fly-by-wire control devices and combine these with a flight envelope protection system to limit pilot control inputs when approaching the aircraft limits. The current research project aims to increase pilot awareness of such a protection system through the use of force feedback on the control device, i.e., haptics. A previous design used asymmetric vibrations to cue the pilot on the flight envelope. The evaluation showed no improvement in metrics at the first emergency encounter, yet did show a potential training benefit. Therefore, a new haptic feedback concept was designed with the specific aim to guide the pilot when approaching a limit and provide support from the first time use. This paper evaluates these haptic feedback designs with 36 active PPL/LAPL pilots who flew a challenging vertical profile and encountered a windshear in a fixed-base simulator. The pilots were divided in three groups who received either cueing, guidance, or no haptic feedback. It was hypothesized that: (i) cueing haptic feedback provides a faster learning rate compared to no-haptics, and (ii) guidance haptic feedback results in best performance from the first run yet worse metrics when no feedback is provided. Comparing the results of the cueing and no-haptic feedback groups confirmed the first hypothesis. Results also showed that the guidance haptic feedback resulted in improved metrics at the first run, and the worsening of metrics when no longer provided.Virtual/online event due to COVID-19Control & SimulationHuman-Robot Interactio

Flying by Feeling: Communicating Flight Envelope Protection through Haptic Feedback

Modern aircraft can be equipped with a flight envelope protection system: automation which modifies pilot control inputs to ensure that the aircraft remains within the allowable limits. Overruling the pilot inputs may lead to mode confusion, even when visual or auditory feedback is provided to alert pilots. We advocate using active control devices to make the flight envelope protection system tangible to the pilot. This paper presents the main findings of an evaluation of three haptic feedback designs for flight envelope protection. The first concept used both force feedback and vibro-tactile alerts, producing promising, yet inconclusive, results. The second concept used asymmetric vibrations to give directional alerting cues, which did not result in improved performance on initial use, but which did yield improved learning rate for the task. The third system employed force feedback to physically guide the pilot away from flight envelope limits, which yielded safety improvements from the first use, but created dependence: pilot performance degraded immediately after the force feedback was removed. From this, we advise to use asymmetric vibrations during training for flight envelope excursions, to leverage active control interfaces for providing force feedback during operation, and reevaluate a combination of both to combine their advantages for single-pilot operations.Control & SimulationHuman-Robot Interactio

Hands-on experience of manual control in a human-machine systems engineering course

This paper presents the results of integrating hands-on experience in an engineering MSc course on human-machine systems. Students could voluntarily complete a homework assignment in which they performed manual control tasks using dedicated software. The tasks were accompanied by questions that students had to answer using the theory taught in the lectures. The lecturer processed the students’ recorded data and presented the results in class. One-and-a-half month after the completion of the assignment, students took a written exam on all topics of the course, including manual control theory. Students (n = 32) reported in a questionnaire that the assignment was valuable in improving their understanding of manual control (mean = 7.80, SD = 1.53 on a 10-point scale with anchors at 1 (poor) and 10 (excellent)). A correlation analysis of assignment participation, questionnaire responses, assignment grades, and exam scores is reported as well.BioMechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin

Using asymmetric vibrations for feedback on flight envelope protection

Modern aircraft use a variety of fly-by-wire control devices and combine these with a flight envelope protection system to limit pilot control inputs when approaching the aircraft limits. The current research project aims to increase pilot awareness of such a protection system through the use of force feedback on the control device, i.e., haptics. This paper describes a new iteration of a design with the specific aim to warn the pilot when approaching a limit and provide a clear direction of suggested control input. This is achieved by using vibrations asymmetric in both amplitude, i.e. the mean of the signal is non-zero, and time, i.e. a cue which has a rise time different from the fall time. An evaluation is performed where 24 active PPL/LAPL pilots flew a challenging vertical profile and encountered a windshear. The pilots are divided in two groups: one group performing four flights with haptic feedback, followed by four without, the other groups has a reversed order. Although acceptance ratings slightly improved when providing haptic feedback, the other metrics are unchanged when switching between haptic feedback conditions, due to a large training effect during the first four runs. The results do show that enabling the haptic feedback does seem to improve the learning rate over the first runs, and no after effects are present when feedback is removed. As such, next to the fact that most pilots indicated that they expect an improved safety, this experiment shows a potential training benefit of haptic feedback.Control & SimulationHuman-Robot Interactio

System provided with an assistance-controller for assisting an operator of the system, control-operation assisting device, control-operation assisting method, driving-operation assisting device, and driving-operation assisting method

A target-travel-path generating circuit calculates a target travel path along which the controlled object can travel in the future from the current controlled object position, an ideal-control-signal calculating circuit calculates a control profile S to travel along the target travel path P, and a difference calculating circuit calculates a difference d between the ideal control magnitude S and a current control magnitude S. An operation system assistance controller controls the operation system based on the magnitude of the calculated difference d to assist the control operation of the operator, the control-operation-state of the operator, the environment-state, and the required operation-precision. Accordingly, it is possible to provide the operator with control operation assistance that is a function of the magnitude of the difference d from an ideal control state, the control-operation-state of the operator, the environment-state, and the required operation-precision, and thus, a control-operation assistance control can be outputted that is suitable for the conditions that characterize the state of the operator, the environment, and the controlled object.Biomechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin

Meaningful human control: actionable properties for AI system development

How can humans remain in control of artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems designed to perform tasks autonomously? Such systems are increasingly ubiquitous, creating benefits - but also undesirable situations where moral responsibility for their actions cannot be properly attributed to any particular person or group. The concept of meaningful human control has been proposed to address responsibility gaps and mitigate them by establishing conditions that enable a proper attribution of responsibility for humans; however, clear requirements for researchers, designers, and engineers are yet inexistent, making the development of AI-based systems that remain under meaningful human control challenging. In this paper, we address the gap between philosophical theory and engineering practice by identifying, through an iterative process of abductive thinking, four actionable properties for AI-based systems under meaningful human control, which we discuss making use of two applications scenarios: automated vehicles and AI-based hiring. First, a system in which humans and AI algorithms interact should have an explicitly defined domain of morally loaded situations within which the system ought to operate. Second, humans and AI agents within the system should have appropriate and mutually compatible representations. Third, responsibility attributed to a human should be commensurate with that human’s ability and authority to control the system. Fourth, there should be explicit links between the actions of the AI agents and actions of humans who are aware of their moral responsibility. We argue that these four properties will support practically minded professionals to take concrete steps toward designing and engineering for AI systems that facilitate meaningful human control.Interactive IntelligenceDesign AestheticsCyber SecurityHuman-Robot InteractionEthics & Philosophy of TechnologyHuman Information Communication DesignWeb Information System