Abstract
The article metaphorically transfers the idea of “in-the-loop”, “out-of-the-loop” and “on-the-loop” from direct control of a vehicle to the influence and control of scientists on the in- and out-of-the-loop problem, here of teleoperation of vehicles. The article is based on the findings of an interdisciplinary group of experts coordinated by the German Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) on the research needs for teleoperation of vehicles, in particular of Cluster 2 on the subject of Human Systems Integration. Based on three use cases of teleoperation, questions are discussed regarding the extent to which science should develop from “out-of-the-loop” towards “on-the-loop” or even “in-the-loop”, and what opportunities and risks could be associated.
Zusammenfassung
Der Artikel überträgt metaphorisch die Idee von “in-the-loop”, “out-of-the-loop” und “on-the-loop” von der direkten Steuerung eines Fahrzeugs auf die Beeinflussung und Steuerung von Wissenschaftlern auf das “in-” und “out-of-the-loop”-Problem, am Beispiel der Teleoperation von Fahrzeugen. Der Artikel basiert auf den Ergebnissen einer von der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) koordinierten interdisziplinären Expertengruppe zum Forschungsbedarf für die Teleoperation von Fahrzeugen, insbesondere des Clusters 2 zum Themenbereich Mensch-System Integration (Human Systems Integration). Anhand von drei Anwendungsfällen der Teleoperation werden Fragen diskutiert, inwieweit sich die Wissenschaft von “out-of-the-loop” zu “on-the-loop” oder gar “in-the-loop” entwickeln sollte und welche Chancen und Risiken damit verbunden sein könnten.
About the authors
Frank Flemisch received his diploma in aerospace engineering with a specialization in system dynamics in 1989, and his Ph.D. in human factors in 2000, both from the University of Armed Forces, Munich, Germany. Starting from the H-Metaphor with the cooperation of rider and horses, which led to concepts like H-Mode, “on-the-loop”, shared- and cooperative control, he and his teams together with international partners from academia and industry coined the term cooperative automation and highly automated driving, which led to a flagship project HAVEit of the EU. From 2011 to 2024, he has been leading the Department of Human System Integration at Fraunhofer FKIE, Germany. Since 2011, he has been a full Professor of Human Systems Integration at RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, where he serves as speaker of a DFG research group on the migration of vehicle automation. Since 2024, he has been a Principal Scientist and Science Evangelist for Human Systems and Ergonomics at Fraunhofer FKIE. He has served as an expert and cluster leader in BASt expert groups on automated and teleoperated driving, represents Germany in NATO-STO Human Factors and Medicine Panel, and is a certified mindfulness trainer.
Marcel Usai has studied Electrical Engineering with specialization in systems and automation at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. Since 2023, he has been a researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the balanced Human Systems Integration Department at Fraunhofer FKIE. From 2018 until 2023, he worked as a research assistant and Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics (IAW) at RWTH Aachen University. His current research focus is interaction patterns for fluid human-machine cooperation.
Andreas Schrank, M. Sc. is a Human Factors researcher at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Transportation Systems. He obtained his Master’s degree in Psychology from Heidelberg University, Germany, while also studying in Istanbul, Turkey, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. In his research, Andreas Schrank focuses on human-machine interaction in the realm of automated driving with an emphasis on the remote operation of automated vehicles from a Human Factors perspective, particularly regarding roles, tasks, systems, and user-centered interfaces. He regularly organizes workshops on remote operation, e.g., at the IEEE IV and ACM AutoUI Conferences, and is involved in major EU research projects like “Hi-Drive” as well as several German national research projects on this topic.
Michael Oehl is head of the research group Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Transportation Systems in Braunschweig and Berlin, Germany. The research group is devoted to user-centered human-machine interaction and interface design in future transportation systems. He is an expert in the ISO and German DIN with regard to remote control of automated vehicles. Additionally, he is adjunct senior lecturer for Traffic Psychology at the German Police University. He has a strong background in Human Factors as well as Engineering and Traffic Psychology. He studied psychology at the University of Konstanz, RWTH Aachen University and received his Ph.D. from Leuphana University of Lüneburg. Among other scholarships he was a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) fellow at the Cognitive Systems Engineering Lab at the University of Tokyo.
Lena Plum received her M.Sc. degree in Psychology from RWTH Aachen University. She has been a researcher at BASt since 2023 working on human-machine interaction. Her main research topics are external communication of automated vehicles, mode awareness and teleoperation.
Elisabeth Shi received the M.Sc. degree in Psychology from Saarland University, Germany, and the Ph.D. from Technical University of Munich, Germany. Since 2017, she has been working as a researcher at BASt, Section F4 Automated Driving. Her research activities focus on human-machine interaction in the context of automated driving.
Martin Baumann received his Ph.D. in 2001 from Chemnitz University of Technology. He continued as assistant professor in Chemnitz until 2007. After finishing a post-doc project at the German Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) he joined the German Aerospace Center 2007 where he led the teams “Driver Cognition and Modeling” and “System ergonomics and interaction design” until 2014 when he got appointed as professor for Human Factors at Ulm University. His main research interests are the cognitive processes underlying human behaviour in human-machine systems, such as the comprehension and anticipation of events in dynamic situations, attention allocation and multi-tasking, trust formation and calibration in human-machine interaction. The main application domains of his research are human-automated vehicle interaction, human-robot interaction and human-AI interaction. The goal is to develop and evaluate strategies for cooperative human-machine interaction based on psychological theories of human information processing.
Klaus Bengler is a psychologist and received his diploma in 1991 and his doctorate in 1995 from the University of Regensburg, in collaboration with BMW. He has been Head of the Chair of Ergonomics at the Technical University of Munich since May 2009. Research areas: Human-machine interaction, driver assistance and automated driving, anthropometry, human-robot cooperation and human reliability.
Acknowledgments
The approaches outlined here were developed in fruitful discussions with the members of the working group “Research Needs in Teleoperation” coordinated by BASt in Germany. The underlying holistic model was developed in fruitful discussions with the NATO Human Factors & Medicine Panel and the NATO working group RTG-330 “Meaningful Human Control over AI-based systems”. Significant findings on safeguarding safety-critical systems emerged in the DFG priority program 1835 CoInCar (Cooperatively Interacting Vehicles), in particular in the project “System Ergonomics at System Boundaries and System Failure”.
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Research ethics: Not applicable.
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Informed consent: Not applicable.
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Author contributions: The authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
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Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.
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Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: The BASt coordinated the working group on “Research Needs in Teleoperation”. This did not include financial support of any authors’ or their institutions (apart from the authors directly affiliated with BASt).
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Data availability: Not applicable.
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