Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how Industry 4.0, with a focus on automation, can influence the need for production personnel in production. Industry 4.0 is upon us, therefore it is interesting to see what importance does production personnel have for prodcution today? And how is the production staff's role in production affected by increased automation? Method - In order to fulfil the purpose of this thesis a study was made to enlighten the problem area. Together with literature study, a solid theoretical reference frame was created that further strengthens the problem area. Lastly, interviews were made with three businesses. Once all this information was gathered, an analysis was made, that lead to conclusions.  Findings - The result of this study shows that employees today are not as interchangeable as feared. The first step is semi-automation, but that does not equal the cancellation of the working man. Instead there will be a cooperation between the employees and machine. There is a risk that the number of employers in production will decrease, but machines will never replace them entirerly. The result shows that production personnel have no reason to fear technology or see it as a threat, beacuse the employee today is till an important resource.  Implications - According to the result, automation as a whole is not as big of a threat today as feared, the first step is instead semi-automation. Since the writer chose to look at bigger companies instead of focusing on smaller ones that lack the possibility to even out the difference between automation and production personnel, it might have been interesting to have their view of the matter. It might have shown a different result.  Limitations - This thesis strives to answer above mentioned questions, focus has been put on bigger, and more developed, companies. Furthermore, no attempt has been made to look closer at the employees of these companies, instead all interviews have been made with personnel working at an executive level as well as those knowledgeable in automation.

More and more complex semi-automated systems are being developed, aiding human operators to collect and analyze data and information and even to recommend decisions and act upon these. The goal of such development is often to support the operators make better decisions faster, while at the same time decrease their workload. However, these promises are not always fulfilled and several incidents have highlighted the fact that the introduction of automated technologies might instead increase the need for human involvement andexpertise in the tasks carried out. The significance of communicating information regarding an automated system's performance and to explain its strengths and limitations to its operators is strongly highlighted within the system transparencyand operator-centered automation literature. However, it is not common that feedback containing system qualifiers is incorporated into the primary displays of the automated system, obscuring its transparency. In this thesis, we deal with the investigation of the effects of explaining and visualizing system reasoning and performance parameters in different domains on the operators' trust, workload and performance. Different proof-of-concept prototypes have been designed with transparency characteristics in mind, and quantitative and qualitative evaluations together with operators of these systems have been carried out. Our results show that the effects of automation transparency can positively influence the performance and trust calibration of operators of complex systems, yet possibly at the costs of higher workload and longer decision-making times. Further, this thesis provides recommendations for designers and developers of automated systems in terms of general design concepts and guidelines for developing transparent automated systems for the future. / Fler och fler komplexa semiautomatiserade system utvecklas idag, vilka hjälper operatörer att samla in och analysera data och information och även att rekommendera beslut och agera på dessa. Det yttersta målet med implementeringen av automatiserade system är ofta att hjälpa operatörerna att fatta bättre beslut snabbare och samtidigt minska deras arbetsbelastning. Dock blir detta inte alltid fallet och flera olyckor har uppmärksammat faktumet att introduktionen av automatiserade system istället kan öka behovet av mänsklig inblandning och expertis. Inom forskningsområden såsom automationstransparens och operatörscentrerad automation har vikten av att kommunicera information angående automationens prestanda betonats, likaså att förklara dess styrkor och svagheter för operatörerna. Dock är det inte vanligt att sådan meta-information inkorporeras i de automatiska systemens primära användargränssnitt, vilket kan försvåra det för operatörerna att tillgodogöra sig denna information. I denna avhandling undersöks effekterna av att förklara och visualisera semiautomatiserade systems resonerande och prestanda i olika domäner på operatörernas tillit till systemen, deras upplevda arbetsbörda och deras prestation. Olika konceptprototyper har designats med inkorporerade transparensegenskaper och kvalitativa och kvantitativa utvärderingar tillsammans med operatörer av dessa system har genomförts. Resultaten visar att automationstransparens kan ha positiva effekter på operatörers prestanda och tillitskalibrering, dock med möjliga kostnader i form av högre upplevd arbetsbelastning och längre beslutstider. Avhandlingen erbjuder även rekommendationer till designers och utvecklare i form av generella riktlinjer och designegenskaper vid utvecklandet av framtida transparenta semiautomatiserade stödsystem. / <p>The author is also affiliated to the university of Skövde</p><p>This research has been founded by The Swedish Governmental Agency for InnovationSystems (Vinnova) through the National Aviation Engineering Research Program(NFFP5-2009-01315) and supported by Saab AB.</p>

More and more complex semi-automated systems are being developed, aiding human operators to collect and analyze data and information and even to recommend decisions and act upon these. The goal of such development is often to support the operators make better decisions faster, while at the same time decrease their workload. However, these promises are not always fulfilled and several incidents have highlighted the fact that the introduction of automated technologies might instead increase the need for human involvement andexpertise in the tasks carried out. The significance of communicating information regarding an automated system's performance and to explain its strengths and limitations to its operators is strongly highlighted within the system transparencyand operator-centered automation literature. However, it is not common that feedback containing system qualifiers is incorporated into the primary displays of the automated system, obscuring its transparency. In this thesis, we deal with the investigation of the effects of explaining and visualizing system reasoning and performance parameters in different domains on the operators' trust, workload and performance. Different proof-of-concept prototypes have been designed with transparency characteristics in mind, and quantitative and qualitative evaluations together with operators of these systems have been carried out. Our results show that the effects of automation transparency can positively influence the performance and trust calibration of operators of complex systems, yet possibly at the costs of higher workload and longer decision-making times. Further, this thesis provides recommendations for designers and developers of automated systems in terms of general design concepts and guidelines for developing transparent automated systems for the future.

Automatisering som fenomen är inte någonting nytt utan har under längre tid kunnat associeras med högutvecklade industrier där robotar i stor grad utför arbetet (Uzialko, 2019). I dagsläget kan detta fenomen i större grad kunna börja ses överallt omkring oss där ett exempel som vuxit kan hämtas från internetförsäljningens chatbots, där en dator automatiskt letar upp rätt svar på en från kunden ställd fråga (Uzialko, 2019).  Automatisering har även fångats upp av vissa aktörer i byggbranschen där man nyttjar automatiserad teknologi vid valet av konceptuella lösningar, där förprogrammerad mjukvara hjälper att automatiskt iterera fram olika lösningar från de indatavärden som nyttjas (Leonard, 2019). Tack vare detta kan man framställa fler konceptlösningar innan valet av den slutgiltiga lösningen görs (Leonard, 2019). I dagsläget strävar många företag efter att uppnå helt automatiserade processer där man upplevt att det kan vara problem att uppnå de ekonomiska incitamenten till att utföra automatiseringen (Frohm, Lindström, Winroth, &amp; Stahre, 2008). Att gå från manuellt arbete direkt till automatiserade processer kan även anses vara ett stort steg vilket fått upp intresset för att upprätta metoder där användare och det automatiserade momentet kan samarbeta (Ahn, Kim, Park, Kim, &amp; Lee, 2014).  I denna studie har två olika sätt att automatisera en beräkningsgång samt modellering av ett cisternfundament utförts i syfte att undersöka hur olika typer av automationsnivå kan komma att påverka byggprojekteringen. Med hänsyn till detta upprättas i studien en helt automatisk konfigurator samt en semi-automatisk konfigurator, som sedan utvärderas av branschrelaterad publik med efterföljande intervjuer. Den helt automatiska konfiguratorn upprättas på ett sådant sätt att manuell input inte är nödvändig medan den semi-automatiska konfiguratorn kräver viss manuell input. Denna studie har visat en antydan om att den semi-automatiska konfiguratoruppsättningen kan vara mer attraktiv att utveckla i dagsläget där den manuella kontrollen är en bidragande orsak till detta. Denna studie tyder även på att ett utav hindren till att automatiska processer inte utvecklats i större grad kan kopplas till bristande kunskap hos medarbetare och att en lösning till detta problem kan vara semi-automatiska processer där man stegvis implementerar automatisering av utvalda moment. Denna studie tyder även på att en semi-automatisk process skulle kunna ge en lägre tröskel för medarbetarna att komma in i processen och tankesättet. Studien framhäver även att framtiden är oviss och att om marknaden skulle skifta mot mer produktifierade lösningar än vad som i dagsläget nyttjas skulle en helt automatisk process kunna vara att föredra. Studien belyser även möjligheten att nyttja helt automatiska konfiguratorer där osäkerheterna i projekten anses få samt där lösningarna till en hög grad är repeterbara. Även om problemet med kunskapsåterföring belyses under studien hade detta behövt undersökas vidare innan säkrare slutsatser kan dras. Det hade även varit fördelaktigt att framöver undersöka hur valet av beräkningsgång och projekteringsmetod kan komma att påverka utformningen av de automatiska processerna samt vilket utslag detta kan tänkas ge på slutresultatet.

Mit der Automatisierung geht stets erneut die Frage nach der Funktionsallokation einher. Diese lässt sich vereinfacht wie folgt formulieren: Welche Aufgaben bzw. Funktionen soll die Automation und welche der Mensch ausführen? Abwendend von traditionellen Ansätzen maximaler Automatisierung und statischer Aufgabenteilungen haben sich heute dynamische Ansätze der Funktionsallokation bzw. kooperativen Automation durchgesetzt, bei denen sich Operateur und Automation die Kontrolle für bestimmte Aufgaben während des Prozesses teilen oder übergeben können. Die Ausgestaltung dieser kooperativen Automation wirft insbesondere zwei Fragen auf: Wer hat (wann wieviel) Kontrolle? Und wer entscheidet darüber? Diese Fragen nach Kontrolle und Autorität bilden die Grundlage für das theoretische und empirische Anliegen dieser Arbeit. Auf Basis einer umfangreichen literaturbasierten Diskussion der Fragen wird ein eigenes Rahmenmodell vorgeschlagen. Dieses erlaubt, anhand der Aspekte Authorität und Kontrolle, konkrete und trennscharfe Kooperationsformen zwischen Operateur und Automation zu beschreiben. Der einfachste Fall einer Zusammenarbeit zwischen Operateur und Automation wird sodann in einer Studie mit 81 Operateuren untersucht. Es interessiert, ob sich die Leistung von Operateuren, welche bei der Prozessüberwachung und -führung optional mit einer automatischen Unterstützung zusammen arbeiten können, im Vergleich zu Operateuren ohne eine solche automatische Unterstützung verbessert. Für bestimmte Leistungsindikatoren können in der Tat höchst positive Effekte der automatischen Unterstützung ermittelt und konkrete Interaktionsmuster der Operateure in der Kooperation mit der automatischen Unterstützung beschrieben werden. Die theoretischen und empirischen Ergebnisse der diesere Arbeit liefern eine Grundlage für differenzierte Bewertungen und somit auch Empfehlungen spezifischer Kooperationsformen, die gerade im Hinblick auf die Ausgestaltung kooperativer Automation noch rar sind. / Automation has always been accompanied by the question of function allocation, that is: which tasks and/or functions should be executed by the machine vs. by the human? Today, dynamic function allocation or cooperative automation has become the dominant approach, which allows for a more flexible sharing and trading of control between operator and automation. However, how cooperative automation is put into practice remains mainly an open question. Two central aspects have to be dealt with: Who should execute a certain function, i.e. have control (and when)? And who should decide about it? These questions of control and authority are central to this thesis. Based on an extensive literature review, a theoretical model is proposed. This model allows for a classification of specific forms of control between operator and automation based on authoriy and control. In an empirical study the effect of the most simple form of cooperation is investigated regarding its effect on performance of 81 operators. It is assumed that supervisory control performance of operators benefits from this form of cooperation with automation. Thereby supervisory control performance of operators cooperating with automation is compared to performance of operators who were not provided with such automation, i.e. had to supervise and control fully manually. Results show, that cooperation with automation has a positive effect on certain performance indicators. Also interaction patterns of operators cooperating with automation are investigated in detail. Both, the theoretical and empirical approach in this thesis provide a profound basis which allows for a more sophisticated evaluation and recommendation of forms of cooperation between operator and automation. So far, such recommendations are rare in Human Factors Research but they are desperately needed, especially when it comes to the implementation of forms of cooperative automation.

Vehicles are becoming increasingly autonomous, as automotive industries are investing in innovative technology. Therefore the technology becomes more available and affordable, making it possible for Toyota Material Handling Europe (TMHE) to introduce automated features in their trucks. Vehicles that have a forward collision warning system, and thus are partly autonomous, are involved in less accidents than those without. In manufacturing industries there is currently a problem with truck collisions and an automated solution might be a suitable way to prevent these. When implementing an automation device, human machine interaction and user-friendliness are aspects to keep in mind during the development. The thesis concerns how autonomous features can assist the truck driver, and how to provide the driver with intuitive feedback. The purpose was to ensure the drivers’ and surrounding personnel’s safety as well as increase the productivity. Research was performed regarding in what situation an assisting device is needed and how to communicate information in an intuitive manner to help the driver in this situation. A conceptual interface was developed that allows communication between the driver and a future all-knowing system, that tracks all objects and personnel in a warehouse. The drivers have had a central role in the process. The observations were performed in the TMHE warehouse to identify situations. The most perilous and frequent situation was when drivers need to focus both in the fork and drive wheel directions simultaneously. This either puts the surroundings or the driver in danger. A conceptual interface was developed to help the driver in this situation. This resulted in a concept implementable in both current and future trucks, to harmonise the solution and ensure a safe warehouse environment. A lo-fi prototype was constructed and evaluated iteratively with drivers to ensure the quality and usability of the concept. The resulting feedback solution consists of sounds from speakers mounted in the headrest and a display interface with warning symbols. The sounds are directional to notify the driver if the danger is to the left or right behind his back. If the danger is only semi-close, the driver receives a warning, but if it is very close, the truck is stopped autonomously. The symbols appear on the display simultaneously as the sounds are heard, to provide further feedback. Additionally, an Autonomous Positioning feature has been developed, that consists of symbols and buttons on the display interface, as well as an alert sound from the display to indicate the system’s activation and deactivation. Safety is enhanced since neither personnel nor trucks are in risk of collision when implementing the concept. As the concept helps the driver position the truck effortlessly towards the pallet the productivity is also improved.

Forests represent one of the biggest terrestrial ecosystems of Earth, that can produce important raw renewable materials such as wood with the help of sun, air and water. To efficiently extract these raw materials, the tree harvesting process is highly mechanized in developed countries, meaning that advanced forestry machines are continuously used to fell, to process and to transport the logs and biomass obtained from the forests. However, working with these machines is demanding both mentally and physically, which are known factors to negatively affect operator productivity. Mental fatigue is mostly due to the manual operation of the on-board knuckleboom crane, which requires advanced cognitive work with two joystick levers, while the most serious physical strains arise from cabin vibrations. These vibrations are generated from knuckleboom crane vibrations as a result of aggressive manual operation. To enhance operator workload, well-being, and to increase productivity of the logging process, semi-automation functions are suggested, which are supervised automatic executions of specific work elements. Some of the related issues are addressed in the current thesis. Therefore, the content is divided into: (1) the design and development of a semi-automation function focused only on the base joint actuator (slewing actuator) of a knuckleboom crane, and (2) active vibration damping solutions to treat crane structure vibrations induced by the main lift cylinder (inner boom actuator). The considered reference machine is a downsized knuckleboom crane of a forwarder machine, which is used to pick up log assortments from a harvesting site. The proposed semi-automation function presented in the first part could be beneficial for operators to use during log loading/unloading scenarios. It consists from a closed-loop position control architecture, to which smooth reference slewing trajectories are provided by a trajectory planner that is automated via operator commands. The used trajectory generation algorithms are taken from conventional robotics and adapted to semi-automation context with proposed modifications that can be customizable by operators. Further, the proposed active vibration damping solutions are aimed to reduce vibrations of the knuckleboom crane excited by the inner boom actuator due to aggressive manual commands. First, a popular input shaping control technique combined with a practical switching logic was investigated to deal with the excited payload oscillations. This technique proved to be useful with a fixed crane pose, however it did not provide much robustness in terms of different link configurations. To tackle this problem an H2-optimal controller is developed, which is active in the pressure feedback-loop and its solely purpose is to damp the same payload oscillations. During the design process, operator commands are treated and explained from input disturbance viewpoint. All of the hypothesis throughout this thesis were verified with extensive experimental studies using the reference machine.

This thesis explores the adoption of semi-automatic functions in wheel loaders by novice operators with three years of experience, highlighting the design's role in enhancing operator engagement and efficiency in short-cycle loading tasks. Research findings demonstrate that hands-on, practical learning of semi-automatic functions is significantly more effective than theoretical approaches, although both remain crucial. The study identifies a major barrier to adopting semi-automatic functions: the lack of familiarity and previous exposure to these functions, leading to a preference for manual control due to the operator’s traditional method’s comfort and perceived simplicity. To address these challenges, this thesis proposes a design solution that includes clear, easy-to-understand instructions and real-time feedback to help operators recognize the semi-automatic function’s ergonomic and efficiency benefits. Demonstrating the practical advantages of these functions in action has proven to shift operators’ attitudes positively. Furthermore, the operators’ perceptions of their usability and usefulness significantly influence the adoption of semi-automatic functions. The design recommendations advocate for an intuitive interface that offers step-by-step guidance and interactive tutorials, making the semi-automatic functions more accessible and encouraging novice operators to transition more smoothly to semi-automation. Overall, the thesis underscores the importance of a user-centered design approach that facilitates the initial adoption of semi-automatic functions and supports the ongoing development of operator skills and the optimization of work practices in the construction industry. / Denna uppsats utforskar användningen av semi-automatiska funktioner i hjullastare av nybörjaroperatörer med tre års erfarenhet, och lägger vikt på rollen som design spelar för att kunna öka operatörens engagemang och effektivitet under kortcykellastning. Resultatet av forskningen visar att praktisk inlärning av semi-automatiska funktioner är betydligt mer effektiv än teoretiska tillvägagångssätt, även om båda är viktiga. Studien har identifierat ett stort hinder för att använda semi-automatiska funktioner: bristen på bekantskap och tidigare exponering för dessa funktioner, vilket leder till en preferens för manuell kontroll på grund av bekvämlighet och enkelheten av sina traditionella metoder. För att möta dessa utmaningar föreslår denna uppsats en designlösning som inkluderar tydliga, lättförståeliga instruktioner och realtidsfeedback för att hjälpa operatörer att känna igen de ergonomiska och effektivitetsfördelar som halvautomatiska funktioner erbjuder. Att demonstrera de praktiska fördelarna med dessa funktioner under manövrering med fordonet har visat sig positivt påverka operatörernas attityder. Dessutom påverkar operatörernas uppfattningar om användbarheten och nyttan avsevärt användningen av semi-automatiska funktioner. Designrekommendationerna förespråkar ett intuitivt gränssnitt som erbjuder steg- för-stegvägledning vilket gör de semi-automatiska funktionerna mer tillgängliga och uppmuntrar nybörjaroperatörer att övergå smidigare till semi-automatik. Slutligen understryker uppsatsen vikten av en användarcentrerad designmetod som inte bara underlättar den initiala användningen av semi-automatiska funktioner, utan också stödjer den kontinuerliga utvecklingen av operatörers färdigheter och optimeringen av arbetsmetoder inom byggnadsindustrin.