智能向善:人因工程让高科技服从人类指挥棒—2024人因工程与智能系统交互国际会议观察

Participants try out brain-computer interface equipment. CYC News - China Youth Daily - CYC News Network reporter plug Li / photo

Li Deren, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, delivered the keynote report of the conference.

Chen Shanguang, academician of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and director of National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering (NKLHF), delivered the keynote report of the conference.

Editor's Note

What is human factors engineering? How does it relate to our daily life? In space, astronauts' clothing, food, housing and transportation, on-orbit scientific experiments, including the space station's extravehicular robotic arm and astronauts' joint missions, are all inseparable from the support of human factors engineering. Around us, medical rehabilitation robots, driverless cars and cell phone screen interfaces are all shadows of human factors engineering. If we look closely, we will find that human factors engineering is far away and close at hand, infiltrating every aspect of human life.

Now that China's manned lunar landing program has begun to be implemented, more complex space operations are about to unfold. Brain-computer interface, as a new mode of joint human-computer exploration, can enhance the exploration capability of space missions and become a new direction for the future development of manned spaceflight. In the future, human factors engineering will play an increasingly important role in the development of science and technology and on the road to industrialization.

Human Factors Engineering Tips

Human factors engineering is a comprehensive cross-discipline that was born as a result of industrialization and continues to develop with the advancement of science and technology and industrialization level. It integrates the research methods and means of physiology, psychology, anthropometry, biomechanics, computer science, system science and other disciplines, and devotes itself to the study of the interrelationships and influences between human beings and other elements of the system, so as to ultimately make the system realize the goals of safety, high efficiency, and livability. In the past 20 years, under the support of China's manned spaceflight project and major national programs and special projects such as large aircraft, high-speed rail and nuclear power plants, China has achieved a number of original theoretical and technical achievements in the research and application of human factors engineering.

More than a month ago, the launch of Shenzhou XIX manned spacecraft achieved a complete success and completed the autonomous rapid rendezvous and docking with the space station assembly, and the two crews of astronauts met in space. Behind the brilliant achievements of China's manned spaceflight industry, the National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering has played an important role.

How can China's space station meet the needs of astronauts for long-term stay so that they can work more efficiently and live more comfortably? How should the cockpit of a high-speed train be laid out to reduce the risk of operational errors? How can smart residential renovation achieve efficient and natural interaction, provide convenient and personalized services, and create a comfortable and safe livable environment? How can the interface design of cell phone screen enhance user experience ......

To answer these questions, big or small, there is no getting around one word - human factors engineering.

The 2024 International Conference on Human Factors Engineering and Intelligent Systems Interaction was recently held in Shenzhen. A number of academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, top researchers from the International Ergonomics Association and a number of overseas ergonomics societies and organizations, and domestic experts in the field of ergonomics engineering took to the podium to discuss the promotion of ergonomics engineering and intelligent system interaction, enhancement of the level of intellectual manufacturing and industrialization, and so on, and to help cultivate the new quality of productive forces and the high-quality development of the economy, as well as to provide in-depth popularization of the science.

"Human factors engineering advocates a human-centered approach, the essence of which is to make the fruits of science and technology benefit all the people and enhance their sense of security and happiness." Chen Shanguang, academician of the International Academy of Astronautics, director of the National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering, and former deputy chief designer of China's manned spaceflight project, explains that human factors engineering is the discipline of studying the interactions between people and other elements of a system, and applying the relevant principles, theories, data, and methodologies to carry out the design of the system to ensure that it achieves the goals of being safe, efficient, and pleasant to be around.

From China's space station, nuclear power plant and other "national important weapon", to medical rehabilitation robots, building renovation, small cell phone screen interface, reading light design, etc., in-depth observation will find that the human factors engineering seems to be far away from the sky, in fact, close at hand. In the process of the advancement of artificial intelligence, it is calmly thinking about the relationship between people and machines, so that high-tech obedience to the baton of mankind, in the invisible place to guard the safety of mankind, create a comfortable life.

Human factors engineering objective: safe, efficient and pleasant to use

Simply put, all products/systems made by people and controlled or used by people are the subject of human factors engineering. The philosophy of this discipline is "human-centeredness, adapting machines to people", with the ultimate goal of ensuring that systems are safe, efficient, and user-friendly.

When we are proud of the Chinese space station that passes over our motherland 16 times a day, the first thing that comes to our mind is the heroic astronauts, the ingenious capsule, the Long March rockets that keep breaking through the new technology ...... And the human factors engineering that is invisible behind all of this is carried through every link of the astronaut system, which is hard for the public to notice. For this reason, academician Yang Hong, the chief designer of China's manned space station system in the Fifth Space Academy, has been to the Human Factors Engineering Conference many times to give lectures, and this time he is the moderator.

There are only a few hundred people in space in the world so far, and both the International Space Station and the Chinese Space Station are in orbit at the same time, with astronauts continuously stationed there. Space-specific environmental factors can have a significant impact on astronauts' cognitive and operational abilities. For example, weightlessness can lead to bone loss and muscle atrophy, which reduces the ability of human motor operation, and narrow space, continuous noise and changes in day and night time duration may cause disorders of biological rhythms, sleep problems and abnormal psychological reactions, which affect human cognition.

China's manned spaceflight has always taken "foolproof" as its goal, but what scientific theories and methods are behind this heavy expectation?

"The space environment is exceptionally harsh, and the relationship between astronauts, spacecraft, and the space environment must be handled well to ensure that astronauts work safely, comfortably, and efficiently in orbit. This requires the design of products and systems used in space to take into account both human limitations and advantages, which is the core connotation of human factors engineering." Chen Shanguang said that the National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering has discovered and collaboratively solved a large number of key human factors design flaws over the years, upgraded the design level of manned spacecraft to prevent major human factors failures, and ensured that astronauts worked safely and efficiently for a cumulative total of more than 600 days on four missions during the construction period of the Chinese space station.

When astronauts walk in space, in the harsh space environment to protect their bodies is a small spacecraft on the body - capsule, at this time to be able to play their "work partners" is an intelligent robot - the space robot arm. -Space robot arm. Humanity to deep space, inseparable from the machine; and if the machine for the king, replacing people, people and what is the meaning and value?

It can be said that the manned space mission itself is a huge experiment in human factors engineering, and it is only through perfect collaboration between man and machine that the hymn of human courage can be played in space. To deal with the relationship between human beings, machines and the environment, China's manned spaceflight has throughout the years carried the concepts of human factors engineering, which is people-oriented and intelligent, to the good.

"Human factors engineering is a concept and a way and a method, which has been used very maturely in the field of human spaceflight and should be integrated into the whole process of engineering design." Chen Shanguang said.

Water is good for all things without competition. In Chen Shanguang view, people like water, if you need, I will come, make up for your shortcomings, lifting you up; if you succeed, I will be hidden in the invisible, will not compete for your glory.

Chen Shanguang and his team initiated the first China Human Factors Engineering Summit Forum in 2016, and it has been held annually for 8 consecutive years, with the same original intention and sentiment, continuing to promote the development of human factors discipline in China. Not only the aerospace field, but also the trickle of human factors engineering has infiltrated into various industries, as well as all areas of human life.

When the high-speed railroad is speeding through the vast mountains and rivers, a small coin can stand on the table board in the carriage - this is a classic shot repeatedly experimented and demonstrated by many foreign bloggers when they ride on China's high-speed railroad. And this scene in the eyes of Wang Jun, chief scientist of China Railway Group, is the application of the concept of human factors engineering, so as to ensure the smooth and fast operation of high-speed railways.

As a leader in realizing the high level of autonomy and control of the whole industrial chain of China's high-speed railway equipment, Wang Jun attaches great importance to applying the concept of human factors engineering in the design process of the train: "The biggest failure challenge is related to the human factor, and the cockpit has to be more intelligent and assist the driver well." Therefore, they optimize the cockpit layout according to the principle of human factors engineering, and place all kinds of operating equipment and instruments in accordance with the driver's operating habits and visual range, so as to facilitate the driver to quickly and accurately read the information and operate in the process of driving, and to reduce the risk of operational errors.

In the past 20 years, with the support of the national manned spaceflight project and major national programs and special projects, such as large aircraft, high-speed rail and nuclear power plants, China has achieved a number of original theoretical and technological achievements in the research and application of human factors engineering. These achievements have silently blessed China's security, from great power tools to everyday life at home, and have continuously expanded the boundaries of human capabilities.

Intelligence for Good, People First

Human factors engineering, "people" is the first word, "people-oriented" is its unchanging philosophy.

With regard to the relationship between man and machine, mankind began to think about this issue as early as the end of the 18th century. From the steam era machine "liberation of human physical strength", the electrical era machine "enhance human efficiency", to the information age "expand human capacity", intelligent era "enhance human intelligence", the relationship between man and machine has been constantly transformed.

While the world's high technology is marching towards the age of intelligence, the Human Factors Engineering Conference has time and again warned people: is artificial intelligence an angel or a devil? Is technology leading people, or are people directing machines? Are we like Chaplin in "Modern Times" to be a screw or a "human battery" on the assembly line, or are we going to put the leadership and command firmly in the hands of human beings?

Standing at the podium of this conference, Zhang Alarm, a researcher at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, asked, "Is it true that smart products can always bring safety and a better experience to people?"

He believes that failure to respect human characteristics in the design of intelligent systems can lead to serious consequences. For example, the so-called smart gears of a well-known foreign brand of off-road vehicles had to be recalled in large numbers due to the easily confused design of the buttons, which resulted in constant car accidents.

This psychology researcher was on hand to take a fresh look at the movie Captain Sully: after completing a difficult forced landing over a river, Captain Sully was surprisingly caught. It wasn't until the wreckage of the plane was salvaged that it became clear that Captain Sully was right. Faced with an extreme crisis in which the plane had a double-engine failure but the system only reported a single-engine failure, Captain Sully, with his vast experience and cool head, correctly determined that the plane could not fly to the alternate airport and had to make an emergency forced landing on the Hudson River. Following the system's instructions would have only put the people on the airplane in jeopardy. Once again, this highlights the advantage of "people" over current artificial intelligence.

Zhang police appeal told reporters that his main work now is to find these people are good at special ability, through the human factors design to put these human abilities to better play, such as the use of people on the natural perception of biological movement ability to design a new car outside the interaction system, the use of peripheral visual field information of low cognitive resource consumption to maintain the automatic system occupants of the environment of the continuous perception, and so on.

Embrace new technologies, but "people-oriented and intelligent". Mr. Koo, Vice Chairman of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), pointed out that the Global Initiative on Artificial Intelligence Governance put forward by President Xi Jinping has contributed Chinese wisdom and solutions to the governance of artificial intelligence.

In the course of the meeting, the President of the General Assembly Chen Shanguang repeatedly emphasized "people-oriented", at all times, people are the first. Machines should serve people, not overpower them.

"The importance of the human-machine relationship in modern society cannot be overstated, as it is both an important part of human life and work and reflects the deep connection between people." Through human factors engineering, the connection between designers and users becomes stronger, and products are designed and optimized to be more in line with people's needs and expectations, Chen Shanguang said.

In his opinion, in the future, with the improvement of the level of intelligence and the integration of humanistic needs, human factors engineering will face more challenges and opportunities. The scope of cooperation between humans and intelligences will move from human-intelligence synergistic cognitive system and human-intelligence synergistic ecosystem to human-intelligence symbiotic social system.

Man adapts to machine, steering adapts to man

When the first Human Factors Engineering Summit Forum was held, Chen Shanguang predicted that China was in the state of mixing and matching Industry 2.0 and 3.0, and that systematizing the research on the limits and adaptability of human beings, the research on the in-depth interaction of "human-machine-environment", and the research on the comprehensive care for the human psychology and emotions would definitely boost China's Science and technology will surely help China to leap forward.

At the time, his expectation of the discipline was that, in anticipation of Made in China 2025, human factors engineering would not only challenge Industry 4.0, but also the explosion of technology in China over the next 30 years.

Nowadays, intelligence, meta-universe and digital twins have entered thousands of households. In the industrial field, China has built the world's largest and technologically leading network infrastructure, "5G + Industrial Internet" to accelerate the integration of AI-enabled digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, the construction of intelligent factories represented by machine vision, digital twin factories, industrial robots and so on are accelerating.

In his speech, Tan Jianrong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Distinguished Professor at Zhejiang University's Courtyard, pointed out that today, the trend of digitization of the real economy and materialization of the digital economy is unstoppable. "For us to realize digital transformation, we must first ensure that the digital economy is based on the real economy."

The transformation and upgrading of Chinese manufacturing enterprises includes digital manufacturing, networked manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing. "Humans have many dreams, not all of which can be realized. However, one technology enables dreams to be realized in perception, which is virtual reality technology. The combination of virtual reality and design technology is an epoch-making revolution in the history of design." Tan Jianrong said. He is a practicioner and has been practicing physically.

Academician Li Deren has participated in many conferences on human factors engineering, and in 2023, he was honored with the National Highest Science and Technology Award. Faced with the reporter's question of "what is different from the last talk", he mysteriously stretched out his finger, "I brought something new".

He brought the new research result - "On Ubiquitous Spatio-Temporal Intelligence". He gave the good news: Human Factors Engineering has played an important role in helping China's mapping and remote sensing to leap from traditional to AI. At present, China has 4 million 5G base stations and nearly 300 remote sensing satellites, and has initially formed an all-weather, all-day, all-hour, global coverage of high-resolution earth observation capabilities, and has realized high-precision and high-reliability positioning in indoor environments of a commercial 5G single-base station, with a positioning accuracy of 1-2 meters. These technologies have been widely used in every aspect of social life, such as daily cell phone positioning, intelligent logistics, flood relief, and aerospace moon exploration.

In Chen Shanguang's view, China's industrialization has entered a new stage, and all links should be shifted from "man adapts to machine" to "machine adapts to man". This is the topic Chen Shanguang has been calling for.

"The trend towards intelligence is irreversible. Today's scientific research is developing rapidly, how can machines be controlled when they awaken with the ability to learn and evolve themselves, and work with people to accomplish tasks?" Chen Shanguang suggests embedding rules into the underlying construction of robots. He and his team undertook a major project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, "Theoretical Research on Human Safety of Complex Human-Machine Tightly-Coupled Systems," to conduct in-depth research on human safety issues brought about by the intelligence of complex systems. "Chinese scientists and important organizations need to form a consensus, because this is the responsibility of a great nation!" He said.

Constructing a large platform for interdisciplinary cross-parenting

"Young talent cultivation is the top priority." Academician Zhao Qinping, who was once the vice minister of the Ministry of Education, has always attached importance to cross-parenting and industry-education collaborative parenting. He believes that intelligent interaction cannot be separated from industrial applications, from industry, and from the help and support of international counterparts. And human factors engineering is exactly a cross-discipline to train young talents.

According to reports, as early as 2016, the National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering of the China Astronaut Research and Training Center initiated the initiative to hold the China Human Factors Engineering Summit Forum, which has been held in Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Changsha, Shanghai and other places for 7 sessions, and has become a comprehensive academic exchange platform with a large influence and non-profit in the industry. In the first 7 sessions of the conference, the participants were all academicians and chief engineers in China, which attracted many young researchers and equipment researchers and designers after 85 and 90 years old to participate in the conference.

Born in 1983, Dr. Zhang Alarm Yu attended the Human Factors Engineering Summit Forum for four times in a row. He told the reporter that before graduating from the Psychology Department of Peking University, he originally planned to go abroad. Later, he learned that China will become the country with the most airplanes in the world, which requires not only bigger and better airports, but also more accurate and safe command and control of airplanes. The dispatching ability of air traffic controllers is the key to the whole system. Engineering psychology can not only help to predict the load level of air traffic controllers more accurately, but also guide the development of various new interaction technologies to improve the dispatching ability of air traffic controllers and the carrying capacity of the whole system. He stayed in China and began to participate in this endeavor.

He was an assistant researcher when he first attended the Human Factors Engineering Summit.

He found that to study and improve the dispatching ability of air traffic controllers involves the knowledge of psychology, air traffic control, computer science, biomedicine, ergonomics, etc., which is highly interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary, which perfectly matches with the "four specialties" of Chen Shanguang, who said that human factors engineering is a "complex and gigantic system established in accordance with the trend of the technological iteration of the national industrial revolution: special equipments, special personnel, special environments, and special tasks". Special equipment, special personnel, special environment, and special tasks", which is in line with the fundamental need to solve this problem and its own research interests.

So, he immersed himself in it and further extended the concept of human factors to the fields of smart phones, car cockpits and aircraft design, etc. He cut into human factors engineering from the perspective of psychology, and helped Changan, Huawei and other enterprises to conduct relevant research and special design. This time, he is already a researcher, and he will present a report entitled "Research on Efficient Collaboration Methods between Human and Intelligent Systems Based on Psychological Principles".

In recent years, the Human Factors Conference has introduced robots and machine armor. This time, Ren Lei, a doctoral supervisor at Jilin University, brought his research results to make robots walk no longer like machines with twisted joints, but rather, "walk with ease".

One goal of this research is to serve paraplegic patients. Ray Ren showed attendees a patient wearing a prosthetic robot walking up and down stairs. The knee of the prosthesis is a robot that can guess its owner's intention of movement. The prosthetic robot, which mimics a hand and arm, can pick up chopsticks, apply hand cream, twist playing cards, and even thread a needle and open a bottle cap. Precise and complex movements have been highly human-like, so that many foreign researchers were amazed.

Another highlight of this year's conference was the fact that compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan took to the podium and engaged in extensive exchanges with participants on their fields of research.

Wang Ming-yang, a lifetime honorary professor at Tsinghua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is full of respect for the wisdom of our ancient ancestors. Ancient chariots, he said, were four feet tall to make it easier for soldiers to board. The longest weapons on the vehicle, such as go, halberd and spear, were no more than three times their height. Because too long is not good, easy to cause injury to the soldiers on the car. "We thought that the go used by the ancients was a round stick with a sword. In fact, the stick of the go is oval, which is conducive to the soldiers to grasp the direction of the knife when they make a move, and more accurate."

When Prof. Wang Mingyang said, "Let's unite and make a contribution to the development of human factors engineering in China that will make foreigners' eyes shine", the audience applauded loudly.

Chen Shanguang pointed out that human factors engineering has made great development in China in recent years, which also reflects the activity and development level of industrial manufacturing in China. This is the first international conference on human factors engineering led by Chinese scholars, and it is also an important milestone in the development of human factors discipline in China. At present, various data show that China's human factors engineering discipline construction and development level has been in the forefront of the world, both in terms of the scale of Chinese human factors scholars and the academic influence in the international arena.

How will human factors engineering develop in the future? Chen Shanguang said that the technical methods of human factors engineering research span many disciplines and depend on the technological development of related disciplines, the research depth of its own basic theories and technologies is not deep enough, the validity of the existing technologies and methods is no longer adapted to the requirements of the times, and the reserves of basic data, laws, and technological methods are unable to satisfy the application requirements. He suggests paying great attention to the planning and layout of human factors basic theory research from the national level, vigorously strengthening basic education, and deepening the research on common science and technology of human factors engineering. Especially in the face of the challenges of the intelligent era, a new development roadmap for human factors engineering should be planned.

The future is here, and the line will be drawn.

China Youth Daily - China Youth Net reporter Sun Qingling 堵力 Source: China Youth Daily

Company Profile

Ltd., invested by Zhongke (Guangdong) Science Group Co., Ltd. and relying on Guangdong Human Factors Technology Research Institute and Wuhan Human Factors Engineering Technology Research Institute, is a new type of scientific and technological enterprise based on the direction of psychological cognition, brain science, driving human factors, virtual reality, biomechanics, neuromodulation and other aspects of the collection of research and development, production, sales, and technical services, with a number of invention patents, software and registered trademarks. We have many invention patents, software copyrights and registered trademarks. The company has been selected as a national high-tech enterprise, science and technology-based small and medium-sized enterprise, innovative small and medium-sized enterprise, Zhongguancun high-tech enterprise, and participated in the preparation of many national standards and group standards.

Hengzheng Technology has been serving universities and research institutes for a long time, taking the responsibility of doing its part in China's scientific research and maintaining a good cooperative relationship with the Chinese Psychological Association, the Architectural Society of China, the Chinese Society of Ergonomics, the Chinese Society of Technological Economics, the Chinese Society of Management Science and Engineering, and the Chinese Society of Automotive Engineering and other societies! At present, it has become the deputy secretary-general unit of Engineering Construction Management Committee of China Society for Technical Economics, and the deputy secretary-general unit of Ergonomics Committee of China Society for Human Ergonomics! In order to promote the development of the industry, Hengzhi Technology organizes, undertakes, co-sponsors and supports more than 40 conferences every year.

Intelligence for Good: Human Factors Engineering Makes High Technology Obey the Human Baton - Observations from the 2024 International Conference on Human Factors Engineering and Intelligent Systems Interaction

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