Much has happened in the field of digitally mediated distance communication in recent years – online video meetings and video calls have become an integral part of most people’s lives, even beyond the pandemic. However, current solutions are often very pragmatically oriented, offering only a limited range of communication channels, mainly speech and facial expressions. As a result, they are well suited for work-related contexts, but rather less so for enabling communication over distance in the private domain, which creates connection and closeness and can also be emotionally fulfilling.

Together with our partners from the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the Institute for Manufacturing Automation and Production Systems FAPS at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and C&S Computer und Software GmbH, we will be developing a new type of communication medium (the so-called ToCaros) in a user-centred process over the next three years. With the help of intelligent textiles and dielectric elastomer actuators, these ToCaros will primarily enable non-verbal communication over distance, such as the transmission of haptic stimuli or light signals. In addition to coordinating the research network, HFC is responsible for the engineering psychology-related aspects of the development process, ELSI reflections and the planning and implementation of user studies.

Following a stakeholder analysis to identify the groups who could potentially benefit from civil drone use, we utilized the online survey method in order to better understand the general publics or the overflown communities’ perspective on the use of drones, mainly for industrially and commercial purposes. These project activities are performed within the H2020 EU project ADACORSA. 

We are delighted to present the details of the study and our results of the survey at IHIET  9th International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Future Applications (IHIET-AI 2023) that would be held on 13-15 April, 2023. We are looking forward to interact with other researchers showcasing their works and the overall conference proceedings.

Noise has a strong direct influence on our health and well-being. It is therefore obvious to protect people from noise or to avoid the generation of noise. Since a large part of disturbing noise nowadays depends directly on human behavior, promoting noise-aware behavior is a promising measure towards a quieter and thus healthier environment. HFC, together with the nexus Institute and the departments of audio communication, and psychoacoustics at the Technical University of Berlin, is now conducting research on behalf of the German Environment Agency to determine how aware people are of the noise they themselves generate. Furthermore, it will be evaluated what influence public participation can have on people’s noise awareness. Based on this, strategies and measures are to be developed to motivate people to adopt a more noise-conscious behavior in the long term. In this project, HFC is responsible for the conception and implementation of the qualitative survey and the quantitative field study.

On January 1, 2023, the iNOTAM (Integration of digital NOTAMs) project was launched, involving three project partners. Under the consortium leadership of HFC Human-Factors-Consult and in collaboration with project partners m-click.aero and Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, the creation, processing, and provision of NOTAMs (Notice to Airmen) will be digitized. NOTAMs are brief, manually created messages for pilots and airport operations personnel regarding flight operational restrictions, such as construction sites, maintenance, or other equipment failures. Current NOTAMs are formulated by operators and are currently only readable and interpretable by humans due to abbreviations or lack of context. The project will utilize the existing digital database of air traffic infrastructure to create georeferenced, fully digital NOTAMs at the airport. These digital NOTAMs can then be provided to all authorized traffic participants, such as pilots in their assistance and navigation systems.

Thank you very much for the trust you have placed in us, the inspiring exchange, and the successful cooperation in 2022.

We wish everyone a peaceful turn of the year and, above all, a healthy and happy 2023!

We are very happy to announce that we launched the rokit project last week. Together with leading partners from science and application, we are working on rokit to develop a center of excellence for robots in public spaces. We will team up to develop services and tools for manufacturers and customers that promote the beneficial, ethical, safe, and economical use of robots in public spaces.

In the project AdaptKI-Assist, an assistance system is being developed that uses artificial intelligence to facilitate the setup and operation of packaging production machines.

The production of packaging materials made of paper or film in production chains with different degrees of automation currently requires particularly experienced personnel. However, the shortage of skilled workers makes it necessary to quickly enable inexperienced employees to set up and operate the machines. For this purpose, together with the partners COVAC Elektro und Automation, Heinrich Ludwig Verpackungsmittel and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, an assistance system will be developed which provides adaptive support during machine set-up and operation. The assistance system is trained with the help of the latest machine learning methods in order to provide information and recommendations based on the production parameters but also on the knowledge of experienced employees. In the project, we are responsible for collecting implicit and explicit knowledge as well as user needs, designing the XR user interface and evaluating the system.

Take the Europe wide survey on civil drones.

We are happy to announce, that ADACORSA`s survey on public acceptance for the use of drones is now live!

It is the most extensive survey of the kind, as it is available in 16 languages!

The survey will take 15-20 min and will refer to your personal opinion on the industrial and commercial use of drones. The survey applies to everyone, and all responses are anonymous.

To access the survey please click on the link below or scan the QR code. You will also find more details on our project and purpose in the introduction of the survey.

http://adacorsa.human-factors-consult.de/

We had a splendid week full of inspiring discussion at WATMC. Thank you for visiting our booth and taking an interest in multi-airport control, digital NOTAMs and Human Factors in Aviation. Farewell Madrid, hello Geneva!

Hope to see you at Airspace World in 2023!

The World ATM Congress will take place for the last time in Madrid on 21-23 June. We will present the newest developments of MasterMAN, our assistance system for remote tower control, at booth 1119 together with our partner m-click.aero.

Since 2017 we are cooperating with Saab, the remote tower control pioneer and market leader for the related remote tower solutions. Saab is supplier of LFV, the Swedish ANSP. Saab and LFV are the first cooperative, which brought remote airport control into operations at several airports in Sweden.

We are very much looking forward to welcoming you in Madrid.