Remote supervision of autonomous agricultural machines

许多工业部门的机器都采用了自动化。自主机器用于制造业。人们对街道和高速公路上的无人驾驶汽车越来越感兴趣。飞机使用自动驾驶功能飞行。我们派无人机去调查危险情况。此外，“物联网”的概念鼓励我们考虑设备如何相互连接，最终使机器能够相互通信，形成一个团队。农业这个古老的职业也开始受到自动化的影响。在过去的几十年里，无人驾驶拖拉机的概念已经出现在科学文献中。在互联网上快速搜索一下，就会出现无人驾驶拖拉机在田地里行驶的视频。技术的进步使我们越来越接近无人驾驶拖拉机的现实，但仍有一些研究问题需要克服。正如在以前的自动化应用中所观察到的那样，我们有理由认为自主农业机械不会完全取代对人类工人的需求。如果设计得当，一个农场工人应该可以从一个中心位置远程监督多台自动机器。这种人类自主系统的最终生产力将在很大程度上取决于农场工人通过接口有效地从自主机器获取信息的能力。这意味着必须高度重视自动化界面的设计，以便优化人与自动机器的交互。目前在科学文献中，关于界面的设计是一个空白，以支持由人类和自主机器组成的团队之间的共享理解。这项研究计划的长期目标是产生知识，以提高我们对与农业机械使用相关的人机交互的理解。在接下来的五年里，重点是了解与自主农业机械远程监管相关的问题，以便设计一个界面，促进自主机器和农场主管之间的信息共享。目前，国内外企业都在开发自动驾驶拖拉机，因此，要想成功实现技术的商用化，需要利用该研究成果的知识，因此，该研究将对农业产业产生直接影响。所获得的知识将远远超出农业部门，因为对自动机器的远程监控预计将用于许多行业。拟培养博士2人，硕士3人，本科5人。他们将成为评估自主机器人机交互的专家

Automation is being introduced into machines in many industry sectors. Autonomous machines are used in manufacturing. There is growing interest in driverless cars on our streets and highways. Airplanes are flown using an autopilot function. We send drones to investigate dangerous situations. Furthermore, the "Internet of Things" concept has encouraged us to consider how devices can be interconnected, ultimately enabling machines to communicate with each other to function as a team. The age-old profession of farming is also beginning to experience the influence of automation. The concept of the driverless tractor has appeared in the scientific literature over the past couple of decades. A quick search of the internet will produce videos showing driverless tractors moving through fields. Advances in technology are taking us closer and closer to the reality of a driverless tractor, but there are still research issues to be overcome. As has been observed in previous applications with automation, it is reasonable to assume that autonomous agricultural machines will not completely displace the need for the human worker. If designed appropriately, it should be possible for one farm worker to supervise multiple autonomous machines remotely from a central location. The ultimate productivity of such a human-autonomy system will depend to a large extent on the ability of the farm worker to efficiently and effectively obtain information from the autonomous machines through an interface. This implies that great importance must be placed on the design of the automation interface so that human interaction with the autonomous machine can be optimized. There is a current void in the scientific literature with respect to the design of interfaces to support shared understanding among teams comprised of both humans and autonomous machines. The long-term goal of this research program is to generate knowledge that improves our understanding of the human-machine interactions associated with the use of agricultural machines. Over the immediate five-year period, the focus is to understand the issues associated with remote supervision of autonomous agricultural machines to enable the design of an interface that facilitates the sharing of information between the autonomous machine and the farm supervisor. The proposed research will have an immediate impact on the agricultural industry as domestic and international companies are currently developing autonomous tractors and will require the knowledge generated by this research to successfully commercialize their technology. Knowledge gained will be relevant well beyond the agricultural sector as remote supervision of autonomous machines is expected to be used in numerous industries. It is proposed that 2 PhD, 3 MSc and 5 UG students will be trained through this research. They will become experts in evaluating human-machine interactions for autonomous machines.**