Akshay’s research focuses on studying the human behavior when humans physically interact with automation, and on designing automation system that can safely and efficiently collaborate with humans. His research interests include physical human-machine interaction, modeling and control of robotic systems, and human-centered automation design. Akshay received his MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2018 and 2021 respectively. His PhD research focused on the development of steering assistance and augmentation systems for semi-autonomous vehicles.
My research focuses on trust and transparency in high tempo, high risk, human-robot systems. I am interested in how interfaces may be designed to support trust calibration and the development of a shared mental models in human-robot teams. My first study examined the efficacy of visual and auditory representations of system confidence for supporting trust calibration and performance in the context of a UAV-supported target detection task. It was found that while targets identified with high confidence led to faster response times, visual representations of confidence in the experiment led to slower response times as compared to auditory representations. Future work will research how a system may represent internal process to facilitate transparency, support trust calibration, and improve human-machine performance.
Karanvir Panesar
Ph.D. Candidate (Expected Graduation: December 2022)
Karanvir has a background in Computer Engineering and prior to joining the lab, he worked as a software developer and user interface designer at a startup company where he designed and developed software for facilitating human teaming with autonomous systems. Karanvir’s research interests lie in understanding the evolution of trust over time between humans and machines as well as the design and development of multi-modal user interfaces to enhance human performance. His current project in the lab concerns an analysis of the challenges and opportunities facing urban air mobility (UAM) and discovering pathways to safely integrate UAM into the national airspace.
Robert is a second-year graduate student at the University of Michigan. Robert’s research interests are cognitive ergonomics and trust in automation. Robert graduated with honors from The Ohio State University, majoring in Integrated Systems Engineering and minoring in Psychology. Robert worked for the Sherwin-Williams Corporate Environmental, Health and Safety Department, where he focused on ergonomic risk assessment, training and awareness.
Hannah has a background in human-robot interaction and human-computer interaction prior to being accepted to the University of Michigan. She previously worked at the Human-inspired Robotics (HiRo) lab at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and completed a research study regarding active telepresence assistance for supervisory control. This study explored the use of autonomous camera control and selection to reduce operator workload and improve task performance in a supervisory control task. The resulting paper was accepted at ICRA 2021. She recently completed a research and development co-op for Boston Scientific where she participated in their robotics initiative. Hannah’s research interests lie in maintaining trust and transparency between humans (individuals/teams) and robots in high-stress/high-tempo scenarios; such as in emergency response and disaster relief. She has also earned an associate’s systems engineering certification from the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) in 2020. Hannah received her BS and MS in Robotics Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Simulation Developers
Christopher Lee, B.S. Computer Science (Expected Graduation: May 2022)
