CAREER: Modeling the Dynamic Interplay of Control, Planning and Perceptual Functions in Agile Human Guidance

该学院早期职业发展（CAREER）计划资助的研究目标是研究和建模空间控制，感知和规划功能在人类指导技能中的相互作用。 有大量的经验证据支持这样的观察，即有经验的飞行员或操作员在他们的行为中显示出模式。 这些模式非常重要，因为它们是人类用来组织和实现敏捷指导行为的机制的表现。 利用小型直升机进行的制导任务将用于生成结合联合收割机飞行器运动、飞行员控制和视觉凝视信息的实验数据。 研究分为三个方面：1）采用数据驱动的方法，结合动态、控制、识别和数据聚类等方法，确定模式的产生原理：2）分析模式之间的转换及其动态构成，确定底层模型结构;最后，3）整合所获得的知识，形成一个描述控制、感知和规划功能之间相互作用的交互模型。如果成功，这项研究将使远程操作系统，利用操作员的先天指导功能，以减少工作量和增加安全性。 示例应用包括搜索和救援直升机或远程手术系统。 这些系统的工作原理是将操作员的视觉注意力引导到对性能有重要意义的线索上，反之，解码视觉注意力以预测未来的控制动作。 拟议的研究活动将促进控制工程和认知科学领域之间的互动。 将利用跨学科的机会：1）创建刺激的本科和研究生课程; 2）鼓励代表性不足的学生参与研究环境; 3）为高中和小学设计推广活动。将通过一个可供广大公众访问的网站以及旨在覆盖控制界和人的因素界的会议讲习班来传播结果。

The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program grant is to study and model the interplay of spatial control, perception and planning functions in human guidance skills. Ample empirical evidence exists supporting the observation that experienced pilots or operators display patterns in their behavior. These patterns are significant because they are manifestations of the mechanisms used by humans to organize and implement agile guidance behaviors. Guidance tasks conducted with small-scale helicopters will be used to generate experimental data that combine vehicle motion, pilot control and visual gaze information. The research is organized in three threads: 1) Determine the principles of patterns' emergence using a data-driven approach combining dynamics, control, identification and data-clustering methods; 2) Analyze the transition across patterns and their dynamic makeup to determine the underlying model structures; and finally 3) Integrate the gained knowledge to form an interaction model that describes the interplay between control, perceptual and planning functions. If successful this research will enable tele-operation systems that take advantage of the operator's innate guidance functions to reduce workload and increase safety. Example applications include search and rescue helicopters or tele-surgery systems. These systems will work by directing the operator's visual attention to cues that are significant to performance and conversely, decode visual attention to predict future control actions. The proposed research activities will promote interactions between the fields of control engineering and cognitive sciences. Cross-disciplinary opportunities will be leveraged to: 1) Create stimulating undergraduate and graduate courses; 2) Encourage the involvement of underrepresented students in the research environment; 3) Design outreach activities for high-schools and elementary schools. The results will be disseminated through a website accessible to the broader public and through conference workshops designed to reach across the control and human factor communities.