The main aim of this master´s thesis is to launch a chain tools storage. The main intention of this work is creation of a control program for the programmable logic controller and HMI (Human Machine Interface). My master´s thesis contains optimization of location tools in chain tools storage. Program part consists of software modules which contain different algorithms (optimization of speed of start-up beds, beds approaching the shortest path and optimal deployment tools).

This thesis deals with a description of the industrial machine of the DWT (drywall tape) rewinder. The winder rewinds and cuts the drywall tape tape into smaller tapes, that are then sold. The first part contains a description of the winder, its structure and functions of its individual parts. The second part contains a description of the control system and the power wiring of winder. The next section contains a description of programming and setting of PLC, frequency inverters, and touch panel. Some modifications are then described when putting the winder into operation. The winder has been successfully implemented and built into a continuous shift operation. However, the development of the rewinder continues to improve its features and user-friendliness.

If automated vehicles are to be introduced on public roads, they need to be able to communicate appropriately with other road users. This can be done using various interfaces and by communicating various messages. Previous research has mainly investigated design of such communication for automated passenger cars. It is, however, currently largely unknown how corresponding communi- cation should be designed for heavy automated vehicles. Scania and RISE are collaborating in a research project on what signals need to be displayed for heavy automated vehicles when they get introduced to public roads. This thesis focuses on design of an external human-machine interface (eHMI) that conveys that a truck is operated in automated driving mode. It explored various types of message contents (abstract lights, text, symbols) as well as the effect of placement of eHMI (grille, under windshield, above windshield) and distance on understanding of the message. The emphasis was on the communi- cation to pedestrians in a crossing scenario. The thesis work was split into three design iterations according to the ”De- sign Thinking” methodology. The first iteration investigated the most preferred content types. The second investigated the effect that the screen placement on the truck had on the comprehensibility of the sign with regards to distance. The third and last iteration meant creating physical prototypes of low fidelity corresponding to the concepts from the second iteration, installing them on a truck and then evaluating them on a test track. The final evaluation was of an exploitative character and involved experts in the field of HMI design. The results showed that it was hard to interpret signals based on colors and abstract lights only. Symbols were also hard to interpret and should only be used when there is a standard for symbols for automated vehicles. Using text, on the other hand, made the message more clear and was easier to understand independently of the distance. As for the placement of the eHMI, the results show that there are preferences to using the middle and upper part of the truck.

Logistics 4.0 describes the profound paradigm shift driven by digital transformation that poses new challenges for the logistics industry. Working conditions change significantly as Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) take over material handling tasks. However, Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) between AGVs and their users, and the requirements for the design of AGV user interfaces considering the challenges of Logistics 4.0 have not yet been researched in depth. This qualitative study in collaboration with the intralogistics company FlexQube explores the perceived usability of AGV user interfaces for their users, derives usability criteria and investigates how usability affects the HMI. Research subject is the company's own AGV line. The six exploratory user interviews conducted with both customers and internal employees show the relevance of Nielsen's usability heuristics and identify overlaps with existing propositions for Human-Robot Interaction. The findings also highlight the impact of user demographics on the perceived usability and on the use of the automated features of the AGV. Also, the impact of the challenges of Logistics 4.0 is discussed. Thus, the study proposes that these four main aspects should be considered in the design of AGV user interfaces and suggests further research on the influence of usability on technology acceptance of automation.

Orientador: Nunzio Marco Torrisi / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Computação, 2014

Les contrôleurs du trafic aérien ou « aiguilleurs du ciel », dont l’activité consiste à assurer la sécurité de l’écoulement du trafic aérien, vont bientôt être confrontés à une évolution sans précédent de leur activité de travail. Pour pallier à une évolution de contexte, associée principalement à une augmentation significative du niveau de trafic aérien, la construction d’un nouvel environnement de contrôle induisant l’introduction de nouvelles technologies et de l’automatisation partielle de la tâche de contrôle est visée. Ces perspectives, qui ont pour objectif de diminuer les sollicitations des contrôleurs aériens afin d’augmenter le seuil capacitaire de gestion du trafic aérien, suscitent l’interrogation. Notamment, comment assurer la validation de ces évolutions en vue des objectifs visés ? Ce doctorat porte sur l’étude de la charge mentale de contrôleurs aériens dans différents contextes, afin d’évaluer les effets engendrés par de telles modifications apportées à leur environnement de travail quotidien. L’évaluation proposée repose sur une approche multidimensionnelle centrée sur l’analyse de paramètres oculaires enregistrés grâce à une technique d’eye-tracking dans des situations de contrôle écologiquement valides, en référence à la tâche de contrôle du trafic aérien. La première étude a tout d’abord permis de caractériser la gestion de la charge mentale effectuée par les contrôleurs aériens au cours de leur activité dans une situation nominale (reflétant la situation de contrôle du trafic aérien actuelle). La deuxième étude porte sur les effets générés par l’introduction de nouveaux systèmes informatisés d’aide à la décision induisant une automatisation partielle de la tâche de contrôle. Enfin, la dernière étude souligne l’effet du niveau de formation sur les modes de gestion des ressources cognitives employés par les contrôleurs aériens. / The air traffic controllers, whose job is to ensure the safety of air traffic flow, will soon be faced to an unprecedented change in their work activity. To compensate a change of context, mainly associated with a significant increase of the air traffic density, the elaboration of a new air traffic control environment is considered. In particular, the introduction of new technologies (all electronic devices) causing the partial automation of the control task, has been defined as prospects for the En-Route air traffic control work position. These perspectives aim at reducing the air traffic controllers’ requirements in order to increase the capability threshold of air traffic management associated with air traffic control service rendered. Such a change may however query. Indeed, how to ensure the validation of these developments to the objectives? This research aims to study the air traffic controllers’ mental workload in different contexts. The objective of this approach is to assess the effects caused by such changes in the air traffic controllers’ daily work environment. The proposed assessment is based on a multidimensional approach mainly focused on the analysis of ocular parameters recorded through an eye-tracking technique in air traffic control situations ecologically valid with reference to the features of air traffic control task. The results deduced from the empirical work of this research were first used to characterize the management of mental workload carried by air traffic controllers during their activity in the nominal situation (reflecting the current air traffic control situation). The results obtained through this research also focused on the effects generated by the introduction of new computerized systems inducing a partial automation of the control task, and those induced by the level of training dedicated to the use of such systems on the management methods of cognitive resources employed by air traffic controllers.

Un tissu classique est réalisé par l’entrecroisement de 2 réseaux de fils (appelé armure), un longitudinal, la chaîne et un transversal, la trame. L’introduction des tissus dans les applications techniques a nécessité le développement de réseaux de fils beaucoup plus complexes permettant la réalisation d’entrecroisement en 3D. Toutefois, ces tissus complexes ne sont constitués que de fils textiles de même nature. Dans un futur proche, il sera nécessaire d’entrecroiser d’une part des fils textiles, mais aussi d’autres éléments tels que des capteurs, des tubes d’alimentation liquide, des fils électriques ou tout autre objet. Le but de notre travail est de développer un nouveau concept de machine pouvant répondre à ces nouvelles exigences. Dans le cadre du développement d’un nouveau concept de tissage, nous souhaitons mettre en mouvement les divers mécanismes de la machine à tisser de manière indépendante et remplacer la synchronisation mécanique de ces mécanismes, par une synchronisation électronique. Ce nouveau type de synchronisation permettra de « déstructurer » l’horloge de tissage et ainsi apporter de nouvelles fonctions. La réalisation de cette nouvelle machine a conduit à la conception d’une partie mécanique et d’une partie électronique.L'automatisation développée lors de la réalisation de cette machine est fondée sur la mise en place d'une structure avancée d'automatisation, constituée d’un contrôleur de mouvement, d’un IHM, d’une automate déporté, connectés sur un bus de terrain CANmotion, essayant de répondre au mieux aux besoins des utilisateurs. La flexibilité et la synchronisation électronique présente dans cette machine architecturée autour de cames électroniques, sont les points forts, et laisse la porte ouverte à l'utilisation de cette machine pour de nouvelles applications. En particulier la réalisation de tissus multicouches hybrides complexes. / Woven fabric is basically produced by interlacing two set of threads, warp yarns, or ends, which run lengthwise in the fabric and the filling yarns (weft), or picks, which run from side to side. The traditional system of ends and picks interlacing is identified as a two dimensional weave or pattern. Involving woven fabrics into technical applications require the evolution of advanced patterns in which ends and picks can be interlaced to build a 3D woven fabric. Moreover, these advanced patterns can allow the integration of new elements other than textile yarns such as sensors, liquid-feeding tubes, electric wires, etc. The goal of this study is to develop a new concept of weaving machine that fill these requirements by moving the various mechanisms of weaving machine independently and replacing the mechanical synchronization by an electronic one. Such a new synchronization will take the timing diagram apart and thus to bring new functions. The new concept of the weaving machine lies on two parts; a mechanical part and an electronic part. The developed automation for this new concept is based on an advanced automation structure. This structure is composed of motion controller, IHM, a distance PLC connected to a CANmotion bus to meet the user's needs, this new concept of weaving machine based on electronic cams which is one of the strongest point. This new machine electronically synchronized allows a great flexibility and gives a great opportunity to develop a wide range of new woven fabric structures

Human-in-the-loop simulators have long been used in the research community as well as in industry. The aviation field has been the pioneers in the use of simulators for design purposes. In contrast, corresponding activities in the automotive area have been less widespread. Published reports on experimental activities based on human-in-the-loop simulations have focused on methods used in the study, but nobody seems to have taken a step back and looked at the wider methodological picture of Simulator-Based Design. The purpose of this thesis is to fill this gap by drawing, in part, upon the author’s long experience in this field. In aircraft and lately also in ground vehicles there has been a technology shift from pure mechanics to computer-based systems. The physical interface has turned into screen-based solutions. This trend towards glass has just begun for ground vehicles. This development in vehicle technology has opened the door for new design approaches, not only for design itself, but also for the development process. Simulator-Based Design (SBD) is very compatible with this trend. The first part of this thesis proposes a structure for the process of SBD and links it to the corresponding methodology for software design. In the second part of the thesis the focus changes from methodology to application and specifically to the design of three-dimensional situation displays. Such displays are supposed to support the human operator with a view of a situation beyond the more or less limited visual range. In the aircraft application interest focuses on the surrounding air traffic in the light of the evolving free-flight concept, where responsibility for separation between aircraft will be (partly) transferred from ground-based flight controllers to air crews. This new responsibility must be supported by new technology and the situational view must be displayed from the perspective of the aircraft. Some basic design questions for such 3D displays were investigated resulting in an adaptive interface approach, where the current situation and task govern the details of information presentation. The thesis also discusses work on situation displays for ground vehicles. The most prominent example may be the Night Vision system, where the road situation ahead is depicted on a screen in the cab. The existing systems are based on continuous presentation, an approach that we have questioned, since there is strong evidence for negative behavioral adaptation. This means, for example, that the driver will drive faster, since vision has been enhanced, and thereby consume the safety margins that the system was supposed to deliver. Our investigation supports a situation-dependant approach and no continuous presentation. In conclusion, the results from our simulator-based studies showed advantages for adaptive interface solutions. Such design concepts are much more complicated than traditional static interfaces. This finding emphasizes the need for more dynamic design resources in order to have a complete understanding of the situation-related interface changes. The use of human-in-the-loop simulators and deployment of Simulator-Based Design will satisfy this need.

Intelligent devices are quickly becoming necessities to support our activities during both work and play. We are already bound in a symbiotic relationship with these devices. An unfortunate effect of the pervasiveness of intelligent devices is the substantial investment of our time and effort to communicate intent. Even though our increasing reliance on these intelligent devices is inevitable, the limits of conventional methods for devices to perceive human expression hinders communication efficiency. These constraints restrict the usefulness of intelligent devices to support our activities. Our communication time and effort must be minimized to leverage the benefits of intelligent devices and seamlessly integrate them into society. Minimizing the time and effort needed to communicate our intent will allow us to concentrate on tasks in which we excel, including creative thought and problem solving. <br /><br /> An intuitive method to minimize human communication effort with intelligent devices is to take advantage of our existing interpersonal communication experience. Recent advances in speech, hand gesture, and facial expression recognition provide alternate viable modes of communication that are more natural than conventional tactile interfaces. Use of natural human communication eliminates the need to adapt and invest time and effort using less intuitive techniques required for traditional keyboard and mouse based interfaces. <br /><br /> Although the state of the art in natural but isolated modes of communication achieves impressive results, significant hurdles must be conquered before communication with devices in our daily lives will feel natural and effortless. Research has shown that combining information between multiple noise-prone modalities improves accuracy. Leveraging this complementary and redundant content will improve communication robustness and relax current unimodal limitations. <br /><br /> This research presents and evaluates a novel multimodal framework to help reduce the total human effort and time required to communicate with intelligent devices. This reduction is realized by determining human intent using a knowledge-based architecture that combines and leverages conflicting information available across multiple natural communication modes and modalities. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated using dynamic hand gestures and simple facial expressions characterizing basic emotions. It is important to note that the framework is not restricted to these two forms of communication. The framework presented in this research provides the flexibility necessary to include additional or alternate modalities and channels of information in future research, including improving the robustness of speech understanding. <br /><br /> The primary contributions of this research include the leveraging of conflicts in a closed-loop multimodal framework, explicit use of uncertainty in knowledge representation and reasoning across multiple modalities, and a flexible approach for leveraging domain specific knowledge to help understand multimodal human expression. Experiments using a manually defined knowledge base demonstrate an improved average accuracy of individual concepts and an improved average accuracy of overall intents when leveraging conflicts as compared to an open-loop approach.

Intelligent devices are quickly becoming necessities to support our activities during both work and play. We are already bound in a symbiotic relationship with these devices. An unfortunate effect of the pervasiveness of intelligent devices is the substantial investment of our time and effort to communicate intent. Even though our increasing reliance on these intelligent devices is inevitable, the limits of conventional methods for devices to perceive human expression hinders communication efficiency. These constraints restrict the usefulness of intelligent devices to support our activities. Our communication time and effort must be minimized to leverage the benefits of intelligent devices and seamlessly integrate them into society. Minimizing the time and effort needed to communicate our intent will allow us to concentrate on tasks in which we excel, including creative thought and problem solving. <br /><br /> An intuitive method to minimize human communication effort with intelligent devices is to take advantage of our existing interpersonal communication experience. Recent advances in speech, hand gesture, and facial expression recognition provide alternate viable modes of communication that are more natural than conventional tactile interfaces. Use of natural human communication eliminates the need to adapt and invest time and effort using less intuitive techniques required for traditional keyboard and mouse based interfaces. <br /><br /> Although the state of the art in natural but isolated modes of communication achieves impressive results, significant hurdles must be conquered before communication with devices in our daily lives will feel natural and effortless. Research has shown that combining information between multiple noise-prone modalities improves accuracy. Leveraging this complementary and redundant content will improve communication robustness and relax current unimodal limitations. <br /><br /> This research presents and evaluates a novel multimodal framework to help reduce the total human effort and time required to communicate with intelligent devices. This reduction is realized by determining human intent using a knowledge-based architecture that combines and leverages conflicting information available across multiple natural communication modes and modalities. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated using dynamic hand gestures and simple facial expressions characterizing basic emotions. It is important to note that the framework is not restricted to these two forms of communication. The framework presented in this research provides the flexibility necessary to include additional or alternate modalities and channels of information in future research, including improving the robustness of speech understanding. <br /><br /> The primary contributions of this research include the leveraging of conflicts in a closed-loop multimodal framework, explicit use of uncertainty in knowledge representation and reasoning across multiple modalities, and a flexible approach for leveraging domain specific knowledge to help understand multimodal human expression. Experiments using a manually defined knowledge base demonstrate an improved average accuracy of individual concepts and an improved average accuracy of overall intents when leveraging conflicts as compared to an open-loop approach.