WORKSHOP TOPIC AND GOALS

The emergence of automated driving systems will influence roles and practices in many parts of work life. Human factors and user interface design will play an important role in shaping the transition towards more productivity and well-being. The AutoWork 2021 workshop builds on its predecessor workshops by refining a research agenda and drafting concrete research studies and projects towards achieving this goal. This year’s version will especially tackle the challenge of designing both for bottom-up “worker-driven” empowerment and engagement in individual, partly automated transport and medium automation, as well as for supporting affected users and stakeholders in the systemic economically-driven introduction of fully autonomous vehicles in closed intralogistics areas.

The workshop's goals include

  • Elaborating concrete "user stories" on how working in future vehicles (considering suitable tasks, technologies, ergonomic constraints, as well as the levels of automation) could look like.
  • Translating these user stories into experimental designs that allow a comparative evaluation.
  • Providing interested researchers and practitioners a forum to connect and establish future cooperation.

AREAS OF INTEREST

The workshop will address the future of work and well-being with automated vehicles taking the following perspectives:

BOTTOM-UP

Widespread introduction of automated vehicle (AV) technology is not only changing mobility practices, but it is also transforming working life in many different ways. This concerns the support of commuters to save time for office work in the car through driver assistance systems already in vehicles with lower automation levels, but more extensively with the advent of L3 automation. A particular goal of the research and design of such systems has been to balance work and well-being in a sensible manner. Another is to provide interaction methods that allow performing non-driving related tasks (NDRT), such as creating text or reading, but also safe and convenient multitasking in the vehicle.

TOP-DOWN

Vehicle automation is also seen as a valuable feature by companies. For example, L4 highly automated trucks, have been considered by logistics companies as a means for performing non-driving related tasks (NDRT) during longer periods of times such as during long-haul highway trips. In restricted intralogistics hubs and production sites, fully autonomous L5 trucks are already in operation and are expected to be widespread in the near future and integrated into automated workspaces for loading and warehouse management. A wide introduction of L5 autonomous vehicles could be achieved sooner in freight transport and logistics than in passenger transport, because environments are more controllable and thus suitable for the operation of connected and automated vehicles within different parts of supply chains (e.g. factories, warehouse, airports, ports and other logistics hubs).

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

For participating, please fill in this Google form and provide some information about yourself, such as your recent relevant research and/or your motivation for join the workshop.

Important dates

  • Submission deadline: August 27, 2021
  • Workshop: September 9, 2021

To promote interactive discussion, we invite attendees to present their related research (or research questions) in a short presentation with a 3 minutes time-limit. The video should include a quick introduction of you or your team attending the workshop, the research question you have or you want to state to the community related to the discussed topics, and your personal aims of attending the workshop. Submitting a video is voluntary but highly encouraged!

Video requirements

  • Minimum resolution: 720p, 1280x720
  • Maximum length: ~3 minutes
  • Contents: a quick introduction of you and/or your team, your research question related to the workshop theme, and your personal aim of attending the workshop.

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

The workshop is planned as a half-day event and is structured as follows:

Session 1 (90 minutes)

The first session will include brief presentations by the organizers and by other attendees. We will solicit position statements, and make time for all interested attendees to present their ideas briefly. Presentations will be between 2 and 5 minutes long, and we will allow plenty of time for discussion.

Break (30 minutes)

Session 2 (90 minutes)

The second session will focus on generating ideas for future interaction designs and, more broadly, for future collaborative research efforts. Specifically, the organizers will identify 3-5 topics (depending on the number of workshop participants). Then, small groups of workshop participants will address the issues related to each of these topics. Topics will be related to work and well-being in and with automated vehicles. For example, one group might explore a particular work-task that can be performed in an L3 vehicle, while another group might explore how remote supervisors might remotely control L4 trucks when such intervention is needed. We will wrap up the second session with reports from the small groups and a joint discussion of next steps, focusing on two main topics. First, we will work to identify important scientific and technical questions that our community should address. Second, we will identify opportunities for collaboration between workshop participants, and more broadly.

ORGANIZERS

PETER FRÖHLICH is a Senior Scientist and Thematic Coordinator at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Center for Technology Experience. He investigates the phenomenon of automation experience, and he develops novel human-machine interaction approaches for different work contexts, including automated driving and smart living environments. He is currently investigating and designing future workplace solutions for highly automated road transport logistics within the H2020 project AWARD.

CLEMENS SCHARTMÜLLER is a research assistant and PhD candidate in the research group of Prof. Riener at Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt (THI), in cooperation with the Johannes Kepler University Linz. In his PhD, he conducts prototype-driven mixed methods research on novel user interfaces for productive and safe office work in highly automated vehicles.

PHILIPP WINTERSBERGER is a researcher at TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology). He obtained his doctorate in Engineering Science from Johannes Kepler University Linz specializing on Human-Machine Cooperation. His publications focus on trust in automation, attentive user interfaces, transparency of driving algorithms, as well as UX/acceptance of automated vehicles and have received several awards in the past years.

ANDREAS RIENER is a professor of Human-Computer Interaction and Virtual Reality at Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt, research professor at the CARISSMA Institute of Automated Driving, and founder of the interdisciplinary Human-Computer Interaction Group at THI. Riener conducts hypotheses-driven experimental research in HCI, driver-vehicle interaction, driver state assessment, (over)trust/ethics/acceptance and human-technology cooperation (system transparency, explainable UIs/XAI) in automated driving.

ANDREW L. KUN is professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Hampshire. In his research he has focused on the design and evaluation of speech interfaces and augmented-reality interfaces in vehicles, on exploring emerging trends in human-computer interaction for manual and automated vehicles, on the use of visual behavior and pupil diameter changes to model the relationships between user interface characteristics and user performance and satisfaction, and on user interfaces for the future of work.

STEPHEN BREWSTER is a professor of Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Glasgow, where he leads the Multimodal Interaction Group. His research focuses on using the range of human sensing and control capabilities to enable rich interactions between humans and technology. His automotive work focuses on designing cues to support handover, haptic and multimodal interaction in the car and mitigating motion sickness when using VR in vehicles.

ORIT SHAER is a professor of Computer Science and Media Arts and Sciences at Wellesley College. Her expertise is in designing, implementing and evaluating novel human-computer interactions including multi-touch, augmented reality, and tangible interaction.

MATTHIAS BALDAUF is a professor of Business Informatics at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences in St.Gallen. He explores the user experience of automated systems and respective user interactions with a recent focus on conversational user interfaces. He leads several user-centered projects in the area of human-automation interaction in office workplaces, smart homes, and manufacturing environments.

Contact

In case you have questions regarding the workshop, feel free to contact Peter (peter.froehlich@ait.ac.at).