Human Factors Engineering for Augmented Cognitive and Physical Functions

While many existing research efforts are made to upgrade the construction industry into a new era fueled by automated robots, artificial intelligence (AI), and other informatics technologies aiming to improve productivity and efficiency, I also care about how to help construction workers adapt or even be augmented through this process.  Therefore, a human-centric computing system is designed to assess human cognitive and physical functions under contextually relevant interactions across various types of human-robot collaboration scenarios. Because construction tasks usually affect the cognitive functions (e.g., sensation and perception of the surrounding workplace) of construction workers, in addition to the motor functions, a comprehensive evaluation should include both behavioral and neurophysiological implications due to HRI. I developed a real-time human behavior data analytics system that integrates neuroimaging, eye tracking, and motion analysis to achieve this goal. This system is embedded in a VR simulator and supports online visualization and computing (www.cogdna.com). This human-centric system is being applied to leverage the potentials of cyber-physical systems for dangerous operations (e.g., search and rescue) funded by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and augment human capabilities in altered construction workplaces (e.g., undersea inspection and construction tasks) funded by NSF.