Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Exploring Human-Machine Integrated Systems in Digitally Intensive Manufacturing Environments (HMIS-DIME)

Clemson University, Clemson SC

Investigators

Abstract

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research. As the current economic landscape stands, there are product designs and associated manufacturing processes that can only be completed with human involvement. If a path towards better integration of the human mind and machine to the emerging smart manufacturing network is properly envisioned, then the resultant new human-integrated manufacturing and control systems will improve productivity, quality, and most importantly employee satisfaction, increasing the adoptability and success of such smart systems. This planning grant explores research and development needs inspired by the symbiotic convergence of humans and machines in autonomous systems, and in particular how that relationship will require change in technical, educational, diversity and innovation issues in the coming decades. These questions have been initially motivated by considering "What is the role of the human in digitally intensive automated world?", particularly in the relationships between man and machine in industrial environments. These questions inform the future of human-automation interaction, and the answers are expected to be based in research converging across disciplines to considers issues of interconnectivity, emotion, teamwork, self-edification and the need to meet other higher-order human needs in human interaction with autonomous systems. This project will explore how humans exchange information with and interpret autonomous systems in functionally-engineered environments and the emergent behaviors that result, with the goal of clarifying challenges and enabling technology needs as the basis for a convergent research-based Engineering Research Center. The activities would specifically explore the concepts of interfaced systems of automated and human elements, with consideration of the symbiosis of man-machine interactions and interfaces, particularly at the interfaces that couple complex systems, the information that flows through them, and how such concepts apply to the future of work. The growth of digitally-intensive industrial automation environments and the needs of decision-makers to augment them and be augmented by them is an issue that is redefining the industrial landscape as we know it. The further interaction of emergent and intelligent system technologies motivates a rethinking of this system of systems, and how they interface and exchange information. There is great uncertainty about the roles machines and humans will play in the future, with people in some cases today displaying ignorance, apathy, or even derisiveness for being threatened by the digital environment expansion (particularly for manufacturing, where intelligent systems could displace wide economic activities that underlie people's place and perception). This planning grant will convene academic researchers, industrial leaders, workers, and education stakeholders to consider the above questions, and to envision the structure, governance, operation and activities of an NSF ERC that addresses the interfaces between the coupling of large networks of complex, nonlinear and uncertain cyberphysical systems in order to satisfy human needs. The project will result in a better understanding of how higher-order human needs can be effectively considered in the design of synergistic human-automated manufacturing systems. Elucidation of the research challenges underlying: design-motivated manufacturing processes, information flow between humans and autonomous systems, and production control with consideration for human integration will be critical in order for society to rethink the incremental steps leading the current digital manufacturing evolution, in order to identify which concepts when properly understood will usher in a smarter, system-level revolution that embraces the relationship of people to the digital domain, and addresses the complex interfaces of such a system. This targeted movement in research frontiers embodies three of the NSF 10 Big Ideas: Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier, Harnessing Data for 21st Century, and Growing Convergent Research. A center-based concept is envisioned to focus on such convergent issues surrounding the integration of people and technologies in a smart manufacturing world; this is warranted as the research thrusts are heavily interdisciplinary; it is expected that collaborations will encompass social sciences (Psychology, Sociology), Learning Sciences, Life Sciences (Biology, Neurology), Engineering, Computing, and others. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.