Biblio

In an effort towards predicting mental workload while driving, previous research found interactions between working memory load and visuospatial demands, which complicates the accurate prediction of momentary mental workload. To investigate this interaction, the cognitive concepts working memory load and visuospatial attention were integrated into a cognitive driving model using the cognitive architecture ACT-R. The model was developed to safely drive on a multi-lane highway with ongoing traffic while performing a secondary n-back task using speed signs. To manipulate visuospatial demands, the model must drive through a construction site with reduced lane-width in certain blocks of the experiment. Furthermore, it is able to handle complex driving situations such as overtaking traffic while adjusting the speed according to the n-back task. The behavioral results show a negative effect on driving performance with increasing task difficulty of the secondary task. Additionally, the model indicates an interaction at a common, task-unspecific level.

Turning through oncoming traffic at unsignalized intersections can lead to safety-critical situations contributing to 7.4% of all non-severe vehicle crashes. One of the main reasons for these crashes are human errors in the form of incorrect estimation of the gap size with respect to the Principle Other Vehicle (POV). Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technology promises to increase safety in various traffic situations. V2V infrastructure combined with further integration of sensor technology and human intention prediction could help reduce the frequency of these safety-critical situations by predicting dangerous turning manoeuvres in advance, thus, allowing the POV to prepare an appropriate reaction. We performed a driving simulator study to investigate turning decisions at unsignalized intersections. Over the course of the experiments, we recorded over 5000 turning decisions with respect to different gap sizes. Afterwards, the participants filled out a questionnaire featuring demographic and driving style related items. The behavioural and questionnaire data was then used to fit a Bayesian Network model to predict the turning intention of the subject vehicle. We evaluate the model and present the results of a feature importance analysis. The model is able to correctly predict the turning intention with an accuracy of 74%. Furthermore, the feature importance analysis indicates that user specific information is a valuable contribution to the model. We discuss how a working turning intension prediction could reduce the number of safety-critical situations.

Despite the known benefits of simulations in the study of mixed energy systems in the context of smart grid, the lack of collaboration facilities between multiple domain experts prevents a holistic analysis of smart grid operations. Current solutions do not provide a unified tool-chain that supports a secure and collaborative platform for not only the modeling and simulation of mixed electrical energy systems, but also the elastic execution of co-simulation experiments. To address above limitations, this paper proposes a design studio that provides an online collaborative platform for modeling and simulation of smart grids with mixed energy resources.