MoDyS-Project: Integrating Framework for User- and System-Modelling

Integrating Framework for User- and System-Modelling

Different approaches, methods and tools in the development process of human-machine systems are used by engineers at the present state of research. These components are well suitable for their own specific tasks but fail in the whole development process. Thus the focus of this research project mainly concentrates on the conceptual development and the prototypical implementation of a simulation environment in order to integrate a wide range of tools and methods into one unified system architecture.

In early phases of a system development process of human-machine systems, aspects of modelling and simulation are essential. Nowadays the modelling and simulation on the one side of technical system components is already established in the system development process, but on the other side a lack of either the modelling as well as the simulation of the operator behavior is ubiquitous. In daily work engineers use a diversity of basic approaches, methods and tools, although only required for individual and strongly separated tasks in the development process. Interaction between such tools and methods is rather the exception than the rule. Especially in complex and dynamic domains, the bounded power of such tools and methods becomes obvious.

Starting from this observation the main goal of this approach is to develop an environment, which is able to integrate a wide range of existing tools - e.g. for task analysis, prototyping, model debugging and simulation - into one single framework (as shown in Figure 1).

In order to achieve this goal, the first part of this work mainly focuses on the conceptional development of a system architecture defining and providing tool interfaces, general system requirements and different procedures for representations of action-leading knowledge within the range of user modelling. In a second step the system architecture will be implemented using an integrated simulation environment.

Figure 1: Research approach

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