Category
Human Machine Interface
DESIGN
A holistic HMI behaviour design for autonomous driving systems (as part of the European Union's Horizon 2020 project Mediator)
Concept
Date
Oct 2020
till
Sept 2022
Project
When automated vehicles provide different levels of automation in one system, a challenge arises: how to communicate drivers' responsibility during (and when switching between) these different levels of automation?
To tackle this challenge a Human Machine Interface (HMI) was designed and applied to several use cases (emergency- and comfort- situations, mode transfers). The holistic design combines the behaviour and layout of screens, lighting, sounds, and other (tactile) components to enhance communication between the driver and autonomous driving systems. It is designed so that either the driver and/or automation can decide which automation level suits specific situations.
By conducting VR-, simulator- and on-road experiments it is being evaluated if the (collaboration of the) HMI components enables clear communication between automation and the human driver.
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The design has not been (publicly) published, therefore the visual shown on this page merely gives an abstract impression.
Summary
Process
Confidential
Deliverable
23/12/21
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Public
Deliverable
TBD
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The design
The holistic HMI enables intuitive communication between driver and automation by means of visual, tactile and auditory signals following a generic ritual. This control transfer ritual is designed for several use-cases following 5 design principles: a holistic approach, design for user acceptance, design for industry acceptance, design for a generic transfer ritual and design for learned affordances. But above all, it should enhance trust in the system.
In order to maintain driver awareness in a vehicle that provides multiple levels of automation, signals should be loud and clear in any situation which is why it is chosen to communicate in a multi-sensory, ritual-based manner according to 3 HMI identities: neutral, compassionate and attentive. The first two contribute to a feeling of team-work between the driver an automation, which could enhance trust, whilst the attentive identity allows the HMI to take a higher hierarchical stand and decides what's needed for that certain (alarming) moment.
The design embraces users with it's multi-scensory communication, enabling contact during any non-driving related activity. This is important especially when the automation takes over certain driving tasks and the user might not focus on the road and driver display the entire time. Ambient lighting is one of the aspects providing this communication: it radiates different colours during different driving modes: manual- (SAE 0), assisted- (SAE 1&2), or piloted (SAE 3&4) driving. These same colours that match the specific driving mode are used in all visual components like led strips and UI design.
Next to these visual cues the HMI can reach the user by means of tactile signals (inflatable lower-seat cushion, vibrators, retractable seatbelt & haptic feedback in the lever), but also auditory messages like abstract sounds (indicating notifications, alarming situations and confirmations) and spoken messages that emphasize visual alerts and notifications.
Collaboration
The multi-disciplinairy consortium consists of: research institutes, universities, OEMs, and suppliers. They represent all kinds of transport modes: aviation, railway & maritime.
Collaboration between all partners took place during the entire research-, implementation- and testing phase. During the design phase of the HMI the TUDelft mainly collaborated with SWOV and Autoliv.
Responsibility
As the lead design researcher of the TUDelft team, I was responsible for the HMI (behaviour) design; the communication between different disciplines and taking care of a seamless transfer of the design implementation into the different prototype platforms (on-road and simulators). Resulting into HMI guidelines.
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Publications
Aldea, A., Tinga, A., Van Zeumeren, I., Van Nes, N., & Aschenbrenner, D. (2022). Virtual Reality Tool for Human-Machine Interface Evaluation and Development (VRHEAD). 2022 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV). DOI: 10.1109/IV51971.2022.9827375
Tinga, A., van Zeumeren, I., Christoph, M., van Grondelle, E., Cleij, D., Aldea, A., & van Nes, N. (2022). Development and Evaluation of a Human Machine Interface to Support Mode Awareness in Different Automated Driving Modes. SSRN Electronic Journal. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4074806
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Kim, S., van Grondelle, E., van Zeumeren, I., Mirnig, A., & Stojmenova, K. (2022). Let’s Negotiate with Automation: How can Humans and HMIs Negotiate Disagreement on Automated Vehicles?. In 14th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications (AutomotiveUI ’22 Adjunct), September 17–20, 2022, Seoul, Republic of Korea. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 3 pages. https://doi.org/ 10.1145/3544999.3550159
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