Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Exploring Human-Machine Integrated Systems in Digitally Intensive Manufacturing Environments (HMIS-DIME)

工程研究中心规划奖助金竞赛是作为ERC计划的试点征集活动进行的。计划拨款并不是整个ERC竞赛的一部分，而是为了在团队之间建立能力，以计划集中的、中心规模的工程研究。在当前的经济格局下，产品设计和相关的制造过程只有在人工参与下才能完成。如果恰当地设想了一条将人脑和机器更好地整合到新兴智能制造网络的道路，那么由此产生的新的人与人集成的制造和控制系统将提高生产率、质量，最重要的是员工满意度，增加此类智能系统的可采用率和成功。这项计划拨款探索了自主系统中人和机器的共生融合所激发的研究和开发需求，特别是这种关系将如何要求在未来几十年内在技术、教育、多样性和创新问题上进行改变。这些问题最初的动机是考虑“在数字密集的自动化世界中，人的角色是什么？”，特别是在工业环境中人与机器的关系中。这些问题为人类-自动化交互的未来提供了信息，预计答案将基于跨学科的研究，以考虑互联、情感、团队合作、自我熏陶以及在人类与自主系统交互中满足其他更高层次人类需求的需要。这个项目将探索人类如何在功能工程环境中与自主系统交换信息并解释它们，以及由此产生的紧急行为，目的是澄清挑战并使技术需求成为以研究为基础的融合工程研究中心的基础。这些活动将具体探讨自动化要素和人工要素的接口系统的概念，同时考虑到人机交互和接口的共生，特别是在连接复杂系统的接口、流经这些系统的信息，以及这些概念如何应用于未来的工作。数字密集型工业自动化环境的增长，以及决策者对增强这些环境并被它们所增强的需求，是一个正在重新定义我们所知的工业格局的问题。新兴和智能系统技术的进一步互动促使人们重新思考这一系统，以及它们之间的接口和信息交换方式。机器和人类在未来扮演的角色存在很大的不确定性，今天的人们在某些情况下表现出无知、冷漠，甚至嘲笑受到数字环境扩张的威胁(特别是在制造业，在制造业，智能系统可能取代作为人们地位和感知基础的广泛经济活动)。这项计划拨款将召集学术研究人员、行业领袖、工人和教育利益相关者考虑上述问题，并设想NSF ERC的结构、治理、运营和活动，以解决复杂、非线性和不确定的网络物理系统的大型网络之间的耦合接口，以满足人类的需求。该项目将使人们更好地理解如何在设计协同式人-自动化制造系统时有效地考虑更高层次的人类需求。阐明潜在的研究挑战：设计驱动的制造过程、人与自主系统之间的信息流以及考虑到人的整合的生产控制将是至关重要的，以便社会重新思考引领当前数字制造演变的渐进步骤，以确定哪些概念在正确理解后将带来一场更智能的系统级革命，包括人与数字领域的关系，并解决这种系统的复杂接口。这一有针对性的研究前沿运动体现了NSF十大想法中的三个：人类技术前沿的未来工作、利用21世纪的数据以及日益融合的研究。以中心为基础的概念被设想为专注于围绕智能制造世界中的人和技术集成的这样的趋同问题；这是合理的，因为研究的主旨是高度跨学科的；预计合作将包括社会科学(心理学、社会学)、学习科学、生命科学(生物学、神经学)、工程学、计算机和其他。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.As the current economic landscape stands, there are product designs and associated manufacturing processes that can only be completed with human involvement. If a path towards better integration of the human mind and machine to the emerging smart manufacturing network is properly envisioned, then the resultant new human-integrated manufacturing and control systems will improve productivity, quality, and most importantly employee satisfaction, increasing the adoptability and success of such smart systems. This planning grant explores research and development needs inspired by the symbiotic convergence of humans and machines in autonomous systems, and in particular how that relationship will require change in technical, educational, diversity and innovation issues in the coming decades. These questions have been initially motivated by considering "What is the role of the human in digitally intensive automated world?", particularly in the relationships between man and machine in industrial environments. These questions inform the future of human-automation interaction, and the answers are expected to be based in research converging across disciplines to considers issues of interconnectivity, emotion, teamwork, self-edification and the need to meet other higher-order human needs in human interaction with autonomous systems. This project will explore how humans exchange information with and interpret autonomous systems in functionally-engineered environments and the emergent behaviors that result, with the goal of clarifying challenges and enabling technology needs as the basis for a convergent research-based Engineering Research Center. The activities would specifically explore the concepts of interfaced systems of automated and human elements, with consideration of the symbiosis of man-machine interactions and interfaces, particularly at the interfaces that couple complex systems, the information that flows through them, and how such concepts apply to the future of work. The growth of digitally-intensive industrial automation environments and the needs of decision-makers to augment them and be augmented by them is an issue that is redefining the industrial landscape as we know it. The further interaction of emergent and intelligent system technologies motivates a rethinking of this system of systems, and how they interface and exchange information. There is great uncertainty about the roles machines and humans will play in the future, with people in some cases today displaying ignorance, apathy, or even derisiveness for being threatened by the digital environment expansion (particularly for manufacturing, where intelligent systems could displace wide economic activities that underlie people's place and perception). This planning grant will convene academic researchers, industrial leaders, workers, and education stakeholders to consider the above questions, and to envision the structure, governance, operation and activities of an NSF ERC that addresses the interfaces between the coupling of large networks of complex, nonlinear and uncertain cyberphysical systems in order to satisfy human needs. The project will result in a better understanding of how higher-order human needs can be effectively considered in the design of synergistic human-automated manufacturing systems. Elucidation of the research challenges underlying: design-motivated manufacturing processes, information flow between humans and autonomous systems, and production control with consideration for human integration will be critical in order for society to rethink the incremental steps leading the current digital manufacturing evolution, in order to identify which concepts when properly understood will usher in a smarter, system-level revolution that embraces the relationship of people to the digital domain, and addresses the complex interfaces of such a system. This targeted movement in research frontiers embodies three of the NSF 10 Big Ideas: Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier, Harnessing Data for 21st Century, and Growing Convergent Research. A center-based concept is envisioned to focus on such convergent issues surrounding the integration of people and technologies in a smart manufacturing world; this is warranted as the research thrusts are heavily interdisciplinary; it is expected that collaborations will encompass social sciences (Psychology, Sociology), Learning Sciences, Life Sciences (Biology, Neurology), Engineering, Computing, and others.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.