Human Guidance Behavior Decomposition and Modeling

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. December 2017. Major: Aerospace Engineering. Advisor: Berenice Mettler. 1 computer file (PDF); x, 128 pages.Trained humans are capable of high performance, adaptable, and robust first-person dynamic motion guidance behavior. This behavior is exhibited in a wide variety of activities such as driving, piloting aircraft, skiing, biking, and many others. Human performance in such activities far exceeds the current capability of autonomous systems in terms of adaptability to new tasks, real-time motion planning, robustness, and trading safety for performance. The present work investigates the structure of human dynamic motion guidance that enables these performance qualities. This work uses a first-person experimental framework that presents a driving task to the subject, measuring control inputs, vehicle motion, and operator visual gaze movement. The resulting data is decomposed into subspace segment clusters that form primitive elements of action-perception interactive behavior. Subspace clusters are defined by both agent-environment system dynamic constraints and operator control strategies. A key contribution of this work is to define transitions between subspace cluster segments, or subgoals, as points where the set of active constraints, either system or operator defined, changes. This definition provides necessary conditions to determine transition points for a given task-environment scenario that allow a solution trajectory to be planned from known behavior elements. In addition, human gaze behavior during this task contains predictive behavior elements, indicating that the identified control modes are internally modeled. Based on these ideas, a generative, autonomous guidance framework is introduced that efficiently generates optimal dynamic motion behavior in new tasks. The new subgoal planning algorithm is shown to generate solutions to certain tasks more quickly than existing approaches currently used in robotics

Investigation of Human First-Person Motion Guidance and Perception Behavior in a Simulation Environment

Experiments consisted of simulated first-person guidance tasks. A simulated environment allows for precise control of the available visual cues used by the subject, a precise and repeatable environment configuration, and consistent vehicle dynamic response. During experiment trials, a subject uses a controller to move a vehicle through an environment. The objective of each trial is to move from a specified start position to the goal corridor in minimal time while avoiding obstructions in the environment. While navigating through the scene, a gaze tracking device records the gaze direction of the subject. This data is used to determine which portions of the environment the subject is focusing on during specific phases of the task.To investigate guidance and perception behavior, an experimental system is used to observe this behavior in human subjects. The primary goal of this framework is to present a first-person guidance task to the subject, and observe the action and perception relationships generated by the subject to complete the task. The first-person perspective requires a subject to learn at both the guidance and planning levels. At the planning level to determine feasible routes based on visual cues, and at the guidance level to learn optimal relationships between control actions and visual cue motion. These learning tasks are challenges also faced by autonomous systems with first-person sensors. Understanding how humans perform guidance from this perspective is therefore directly applicable to investigating human-inspired approaches to autonomous guidance.U.S. Office of Naval Research (2013-16, #11361538)National Science Foundation (CAREER 2013-18 CMMI-1254906

Comparison of Match External Loads across a Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse Season

The purpose of this study was to compare external workloads between collegiate men’s (MLAX) and women’s lacrosse (WLAX) matches and examine positional differences across the season. Athletes (MLAX: n = 10; WLAX: n = 13) wore a global positional system device during all matches. External load metrics included in the analysis were total distance (TD), sprint distance (SD), accelerations (>3 m/s2), sprint efforts, player load per minute (PL/min), top speed, and distances spent in various speed zones. WLAX had higher TD (p = 0.001), SD (p p p p p p p p = 0.011) and the smallest distance at low speeds (p < 0.001) compared to attackers and defenders. Results indicate that there are significant gender and positional differences in external workload demands during match play, specifically for volume- and intensity-derived workload parameters, between men’s and women’s lacrosse. Therefore, sports performance coaches should create gender- and position-specific conditioning programs to prepare athletes for match demands