Summary

Welcome, stranger! My name is Florian Fortmann. I am a digital technology expert with many years of expertise in R&D (human-computer interaction, human factors, and usability/UX), project management and strategy development.

I received a Diploma degree in Computer Science and I hold a Doctor of Engineering degree, which I received for my research on attention guidance as a means to support human operators in charge of supervisory control of highly automated systems.

Work Experience

Education and Certification

Doctoral Thesis Abstract

Unmanned aerial systems have become a main sector to explore and further push the boundaries of automation. In contrast to conventional, manned aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are controlled by human operators from dislocated control stations. Possible scenarios for using UAV instead of manned aircraft are of both, civil and military nature, including surveillance, reconnaissance, agricultural imaging, border patrol, construction inspection, and firefighting. The main advantage is the reduction of risk for human personnel, which results from operating in hazardous terrain or conflict areas. Today, a single aircraft-size UAV typically requires control through several human operators via dedicated human-machine interfaces. However, research on future architectures targets on inverting the human-UAV ratio, allowing one human operator to control many UAV simultaneously.

Because human cognitive and physical resources are limited by nature, the key technology allowing one human operator to safely control many UAV is automation. The human operator mainly plays the role of a supervisor. As a supervisor, the human operator is the "ultima ratio" in abnormal situations that cannot be handled by the automation. The underlying human-machine interaction paradigm is commonly known as human supervisory control. Within this paradigm building and maintaining sufficient situation awareness is very important. However, human factors research revealed that insufficient situation awareness is the main cause of human error in context of human supervisory control. The key enabler of good situation awareness is adequate monitoring behavior. Therefore, it is a safety-critical requirement that displays are designed in a way that supports human operators to selectively perceive the information they need. However, human factors research again showed that monitoring behavior is very often inadequate, e.g., because of distraction, perseveration or fatigue.

In this work, we present an assistant system to improve the monitoring behavior of a human operator in charge of supervisory control of multiple highly-automated unmanned aerial vehicles. The underlying concept is based on the real-time assessment and augmentation of monitoring performance. The real-time assessment of monitoring performance is based on an eye tracking-based tool that allows to assess the demand for attention of information conveyed by a user interface for supervisory control of multiple highly-automated UAV. The real-time augmentation of monitoring performance is based on two strategies to adapt the characteristics of the user interface used by a human operator. The first strategy invokes visual cues on a situation awareness display to support visual search for information demanding attention. The second strategy invokes visual cues on a peripheral display to support the human operator's awareness for monitoring behavior adequacy. Our results indicate that assisting the monitoring task using visual cue invocation improves monitoring performance and situation awareness.

_

Note: My thesis has been published as a book. You can buy it in the OlWIR store.

Publications

Cahill, J. & Callari, T. C. & Fortmann, F. & Javaux, D. & Hasselberg, A. (2016), A-PiMod: A new approach to solving Human Factors problems with Automation, in 'Proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII)', Springer.

Suck, S. & Fortmann, F. (2016), Aircraft Pilot Intention Recognition for Advanced Cockpit Assistance Systems, in 'Proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII)', Springer.

Fortmann, F. (2016), Augmenting Monitoring Performance during UAV Supervisory Control with Adaptive Displays, in 'Oldenburg Computer Science Series', OlWIR.

Fortmann, F. & Cahill, J. & Callari, T. & Javaux, D. & Hasselberg, A. & Suck, S. (2016), Developing a Feedback System to Augment Monitoring Performance of Aircraft Pilots, in 'Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Cognitive Methods in Situation Awareness and Decision Support (CogSIMA)', IEEE.

Fortmann, F. & Müller, H. & Lüdtke, A. & Boll, S. (2015), Expert-based Design and Evaluation of an Ambient Light Display to Improve Monitoring Performance during Multi-UAV Supervisory Control, in 'Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Cognitive Methods in Situation Awareness and Decision Support (CogSIMA)', IEEE.

Hasselberg, A., Fortmann, F. & Suck, S. (2015), Entwicklung kooperativer Crew-Automation-Interaktion im Cockpit, in ' Proceedings of the Berliner Werkstatt für Mensch-Maschine Systeme (BWMMS)'.

Fortmann, F., Nowak, D., Bruns, K., Milster, M. & Boll, S. (2015), Assisting Mouse Pointer Recovery in Multi-Display Environments, in ' Proceedings of the Mensch & Computer: Interaktive Vielfalt', Springer.

Javaux, D., Fortmann, F. & Möhlenbrink, C. (2015), Adaptive Human-Automation Cooperation: A General Architecture for the Cockpit and its Application in the A-PiMod Project, in 'Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Advanced Cognitive Technologies and Applications (COGNITIVE)', IARIA.

Suck, S. & Fortmann, F. (2015), Multi-dimensional Pilot Crew State Inference for Improved Pilot Crew-Automation Partnership, in 'Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Advanced Cognitive Technologies and Applications (COGNITIVE)', IARIA.

Fortmann, F. & Müller, H. & Brauer, D. & Boll, S. (2014), Supporting Situation Awareness with Peripheral Feedback on Monitoring Behavior, in 'Proceedings of the 8th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Fun, Fast, Foundational (NordiCHI)', ACM.

Fortmann, F. (2014), Applying the MIDAS SA-Model to Score Human Operator Situation Awareness (Poster), in 'Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics(AHFE)'.

Denker, C. & Fortmann, F. & Ostendorp, M. & Hahn, A. (2014), Assessing the Fitness of Information Supply and Demand during User Interface Design, in 'Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE)', IEEE.

Fortmann, F. & Mengeringhausen, T. (2014), Development and Evaluation of an Assistant System to Aid Monitoring Behavior during Multi-UAV Supervisory Control: Experiences from the D3CoS Project, in 'European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics (ECCE)', ACM.

Fortmann, F. & Boll, S. (2014), Designing a Visual Cue Invocation Scheme to Aid Monitoring Behavior on a Digital Map Display, in 'Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI)', ACM.

Fortmann, F. & Wortelen, B. (2013), Supervising the Supervisor: An Approach to Improve Scanning Behaviour during UAV Supervisory Control, in 'Berliner Werkstatt für Mensch-Maschine Systeme (BWMMS)', Springer.

Fortmann, F. (2013), SA-Based Guidance to Aid UAV Swarm Supervisory Control: What do Experts Say?, in 'Mensch & Computer 2013: Interaktive Vielfalt', Springer.

Fortmann, F. & Lüdtke, A. (2013), An intelligent SA-adaptive interface to aid supervisory control of a UAV swarm, in 'Industrial Informatics (INDIN)', IEEE.lorem ipsum

Frische, F. & Lüdtke, A. (2013), Supervisory Guide Part I: Detecting Gaps in UAV Swarm Operator Situation Awareness, in 'Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI)', ACM.

Frische, F. & Lüdtke, A. (2013), SA-Tracer: A Tool for Assessment of UAV Swarm Operator SA during Mission Execution, in 'Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Cognitive Methods in Situation Awareness and Decision Support (CogSIMA)', IEEE.

Hornauer, S., Frische, F., Lüdtke, A. & Sauer, J. (2012), Supervised Task Performance of an Autonomous UAV Swarm, Supporting and Implementing Fire-Fighting Procedures., in 'Agreement Technologies (AT)', pp. 446—447, IEEE.

Frische, F. & Lüdtke, A. (2012), Virtual Observation for Assessment of Operator Situation Awareness, in 'Human Computer Interaction (IHCI)', IARIA.

Frische, F. & Vyshnevskyy, M. & Lüdtke, A. (2012) Entwicklung intelligenter, adaptiver Anzeigesysteme zur Verbesserung des Situationsbewusstseins von Operateuren autonomer UAV Schwärme, in '54. Fachausschusssitzung L6.4 Anthopotechnik der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DGLR)'.

Lüdtke, A., Osterloh, J.-P. & Frische, F. (2012), Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Aircraft Cockpit Systems by Model-based Simulation of Pilot Performance, in 'Embedded Real Time Software and Systems (ERTS)', IEEE.

Frische, F. & Lüdtke, A. (2011), The Difference Matters: Benchmarking Visual Performance of a Cognitive Pilot Model, in 'Human-Computer Interaction - Interact', Springer.

Frische, F.; Osterloh, J.-P. & Lüdtke, A. (2011), Modelling and Validating Pilots Visual Attention Allocation During the Interaction with an Advanced Flight Management System, in 'Human Modelling in Assisted Transportation', Springer.

Lüdtke, A.; Frische, F. & Osterloh, J.-P. (2011), Validation of a Digital Human Model for Predicting Flight Crew Aircraft Cockpit Interaction, in 'Berliner Werkstatt für Mensch-Maschine Systeme (BWMMS)'.

Frische, F., Osterloh, J. P., & Lüdtke, A. (2010, October). Simulating Visual Attention Allocation of Pilots in an Advanced Cockpit Environment. In 'Proceedings of the MODSIM World Conference and Expo'.

Frische, F., Mistrzyk, T., & Lüdtke, A. (2009). Detection of Pilot Errors in Data by Combining Task Modeling and Model Checking. In 'Human Computer Interaction–INTERACT', Springer.

Frische, F. & Mistrzyk, T. & Lüdtke, A. (2008). Modelliering und Analyse von Pilotenverhalten in Flugzeug-Cockpits, in '50. Fachausschusssitzung L6.4 Anthopotechnik der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DGLR)'.