About us

We are a group of researchers who aim at gaining a better insight into human behaviour and its underlying mechanisms in a world which becomes increasingly complex. We engage in multiple areas of human factors, such as highly automated driving, the use of collaborative robotic systems, the automation of ships, as well as new software solutions. We provide fundamental as well as more applied findings from a psychological and cognitive science perspective, with a focus on mental workload, adaptability, acceptance, and cognitive functions as well as influencing factors. Our findings create a basis for a human-centred development of new technologies and the development of measures to support the users in interacting with new systems. Our work is funded by different national and international research grants as well as various business partners.

Blog

WHAT'S NEW

15.09.2023

CoboTank project gets first user feedback on cobot

In mid-September, we had the opportunity to present our initial ideas for our collaborative robot to students at the Schiffer-Berufskolleg RHEIN as part of the CoboTank project. We set up two focus groups, each consisting of four students, who discussed and evaluated our proposals for the robot's conceptual form and functions, as well as the design we proposed. We received a lot of input and are now developing a concrete prototype. Our next topic is the graphical user interface, which will also be discussed with potential users.

03. - 06.09.2023

Mensch und Computer 2023 in Rapperswil

We had a great time discussing current research ideas at the Mensch und Computer conference in Rapperswil. The conference was held at OST Ostschweizer Fachhochschule, which is located on Lake Zurich and was a fantastic conference location. The conference is the largest conference series on human-computer interaction in Europe and is an interdisciplinary event between academia and industry. We were able to present the CoboTank project as well as ideas for future studies at the conference and are very grateful for the feedback we received and the inspiring exchange of ideas.

We are already looking forward to Mensch und Computer 2024 in Karlsruhe!

16.08.2023

Kick-Off Meeting Project Strali

Our kick-off meeting for the Strali project took place in Duisburg. The individual representatives of the chairs of ABWL and Mobility, General Business Administration & International Automotive Management, Mobility and Urban Planning as well as Mechatronics came together with representatives of the city of Essen to plan the further procedure in the Strali project. We are looking forward to the cooperation in the next three years, to exciting findings and joint publications.

For more information about the project, please read our project description.

12.08.2023

We are hiring for our new mFund project "STRALI"

09. - 11.08.2023

UPA Summer School

From August 9th to 11th we had the opportunity to participate in the summer school of the German UPA (Professional Association of German Usability and User Experience Professionals) at the Kloster Bronnbach. Within 2 days we worked on a problem for which we had to develop and test a solution within the framework of the Human Centered Design process. We developed a first prototype using UX methods such as interviews, personas, storytelling, prototyping and usability testing. Applying these techniques and getting feedback from a panel of experts was a great pleasure. We are very excited to be able to apply some of the lessons learned to developing the Cobot as well, as part of the CoboTank Project.