Situational Assessment as a Marker of Cognitive Skill Decay. The aim of this study is to test how differences in exposure to complex tasks change the capacity for situational assessment. Amongst drivers, pilots and electricity controllers, the capacity to assess and respond effectively to changes in the operational environment are critical in sustaining performance and ensuring the safety and security of the public. Establishing the nature of this relationship will enable, for the first time, ob ....Situational Assessment as a Marker of Cognitive Skill Decay. The aim of this study is to test how differences in exposure to complex tasks change the capacity for situational assessment. Amongst drivers, pilots and electricity controllers, the capacity to assess and respond effectively to changes in the operational environment are critical in sustaining performance and ensuring the safety and security of the public. Establishing the nature of this relationship will enable, for the first time, objective measures of cognitive skill decay. In evaluating cognitive skill decay more accurately, we will provide a cost-effective, easily administered tool, enabling practitioners to identify and address areas of development and providing data to anticipate when cognitive skill decay is most likely to occur.Read moreRead less
Towards equity in crash protection. Women are at increased relative risk for death and serious injury in motor vehicle crashes compared to men and the reasons for this are not clear. This Fellowship aims to build a new model that describes the mechanistic pathways for this inequity to identify where and how intervention could reduce this relative risk. This will establish what population groups have good and poor access to the best vehicle safety technologies, the differences, and what might cau ....Towards equity in crash protection. Women are at increased relative risk for death and serious injury in motor vehicle crashes compared to men and the reasons for this are not clear. This Fellowship aims to build a new model that describes the mechanistic pathways for this inequity to identify where and how intervention could reduce this relative risk. This will establish what population groups have good and poor access to the best vehicle safety technologies, the differences, and what might cause these differences in the benefits of vehicle safety technology between women and men. The outcomes will be of use to academics, policy makers and industry designing to new ways to protect women in crashes and close this gender gap.Read moreRead less
Crashworthiness topology optimisation for light-weight battery compartments. This project uses computational modelling and optimisation methods to the design of battery compartments for electric vehicles. As the use of electric vehicles becomes more extensive, awareness of the consequences of catastrophic failure of high energy battery in a crash has increased. This project will develop novel design methodologies, using multi-disciplinary techniques for battery compartment structure. The methodo ....Crashworthiness topology optimisation for light-weight battery compartments. This project uses computational modelling and optimisation methods to the design of battery compartments for electric vehicles. As the use of electric vehicles becomes more extensive, awareness of the consequences of catastrophic failure of high energy battery in a crash has increased. This project will develop novel design methodologies, using multi-disciplinary techniques for battery compartment structure. The methodology will expand conventional crashworthiness design to the coupled mechanical-electrochemical-thermal problems. The proposed crashworthiness optimisation of battery compartment structure will enhance safety and reliability of electric vehicles, potentially benefiting consumers and manufacturers.Read moreRead less
Understanding and improving sustained attention under vigilance conditions. This project aims to address a major global challenge caused by technological advances: human operators have to monitor computer-control (e.g., in autonomous vehicles, rail and airtraffic control) but sustaining attention is very difficult under these conditions. Developing innovative behavioural and neural methods, this internationally collaborative project bridges basic and applied science to understand lapses of atten ....Understanding and improving sustained attention under vigilance conditions. This project aims to address a major global challenge caused by technological advances: human operators have to monitor computer-control (e.g., in autonomous vehicles, rail and airtraffic control) but sustaining attention is very difficult under these conditions. Developing innovative behavioural and neural methods, this internationally collaborative project bridges basic and applied science to understand lapses of attention under monitoring conditions. It creates a novel intervention, based on brain activity patterns, to improve performance. Outcomes will increase our neural understanding of attention and lay a foundation for a novel system to detect lapses of attention in high-risk environments, preventing errors before they occur.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200101079
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$426,241.00
Summary
Safe distractions? Taking the danger out of competing activities. Distracted driving is an increasing safety concern in Australia and worldwide. Smartphones play key roles in today’s professional and social contexts and current road safety policies based on stopping their use while driving have shown little success. Distraction is predicted to be an even greater issue in new semi-automated vehicles. This project proposes an innovative approach that will enable safe engagement in competing tasks ....Safe distractions? Taking the danger out of competing activities. Distracted driving is an increasing safety concern in Australia and worldwide. Smartphones play key roles in today’s professional and social contexts and current road safety policies based on stopping their use while driving have shown little success. Distraction is predicted to be an even greater issue in new semi-automated vehicles. This project proposes an innovative approach that will enable safe engagement in competing tasks while driving non-automated and semi-automated vehicles. The outcomes will underpin the development of new technologies to reduce the potential adverse effects of these distractions and thus reduce deaths and serious injuries, representing significant cost savings to the health system and the community.Read moreRead less
User-centric solutions to optimise safety of children in cars. Globally, incorrect use of child restraints and inappropriate use of adult seat belts are widespread and longstanding problems. In Australia alone >2 million children are at increased risk of injury because of the lack of understanding about how to solve these problems. We have pioneered development of methods to allow novel user-centred approaches coupled with behavioural theory to effectively tackle these problems. In this project ....User-centric solutions to optimise safety of children in cars. Globally, incorrect use of child restraints and inappropriate use of adult seat belts are widespread and longstanding problems. In Australia alone >2 million children are at increased risk of injury because of the lack of understanding about how to solve these problems. We have pioneered development of methods to allow novel user-centred approaches coupled with behavioural theory to effectively tackle these problems. In this project we will build on and extend these innovative methods to to deliver new understanding about how (i) to communicate with parents to ensure behaviours and decisions about restraint optimise safety, and (ii) user-driven design can solve problems inhibiting optimal protection of in cars.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101181
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$403,775.00
Summary
Information Fusion for Tracking Objects in Large-Scale Sensor Network. This project aims to develop a mathematical framework to combine multi-modal information coming from multiple sensors. These mobile sensors will be spatially distributed over a large-scale area for the purpose of multi-object tracking. The main application of this framework is for cooperative perception for intelligent decision making. Expected outcomes include a novel technique to integrate receiving information from multipl ....Information Fusion for Tracking Objects in Large-Scale Sensor Network. This project aims to develop a mathematical framework to combine multi-modal information coming from multiple sensors. These mobile sensors will be spatially distributed over a large-scale area for the purpose of multi-object tracking. The main application of this framework is for cooperative perception for intelligent decision making. Expected outcomes include a novel technique to integrate receiving information from multiple mobile agents (e.g. vehicle) to enhance their ability to anticipate situations in dynamic environments and to act effectively to enhance safety. This should provide benefits for the development of cooperative autonomous driving to enhance road safety.Read moreRead less
A human-centric eXplainable Automated Vehicle. The aim is to create a computational model to address the inability of Automated Vehicles (AV), powered by Artificial intelligence, to self explain their behaviours. This project applies novel multidisciplinary methodologies in a real-world self-driving setting to formalise the essence of driving explanations. It explores the when, why and how a driver is seeking an explanation and what type of automated explanation is truly human-interpretable. Exp ....A human-centric eXplainable Automated Vehicle. The aim is to create a computational model to address the inability of Automated Vehicles (AV), powered by Artificial intelligence, to self explain their behaviours. This project applies novel multidisciplinary methodologies in a real-world self-driving setting to formalise the essence of driving explanations. It explores the when, why and how a driver is seeking an explanation and what type of automated explanation is truly human-interpretable. Expected outcomes include the discovery of an acceptable, transparent and ethical explanation system that helps humans to understand the AVs decision making. This field will continue to rise in prominence and produce much-needed work to improve the widespread adoption of AVs.Read moreRead less
Elucidating the mechanics of facet dislocation and fracture in the neck. This project aims to address shortcomings in understanding the mechanics of neck trauma. Understanding the mechanical factors leading to cervical facet dislocation and fracture is necessary to improve injury prevention strategies and their assessment. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of spinal injury biomechanics, developing and using new experimental techniques. The project expects to provide know ....Elucidating the mechanics of facet dislocation and fracture in the neck. This project aims to address shortcomings in understanding the mechanics of neck trauma. Understanding the mechanical factors leading to cervical facet dislocation and fracture is necessary to improve injury prevention strategies and their assessment. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of spinal injury biomechanics, developing and using new experimental techniques. The project expects to provide knowledge necessary to improve crash test dummy design, associated injury criteria, and computational models, which provide the potential for improved injury prevention measures and methods for assessing existing and new technologies. The anticipated benefits of this project will be significant in reducing the personal and economic burden of spinal injuries.Read moreRead less
Improving novice drivers' speed and hazard management. The aim of the study is to extend the evidence-based approach we have developed for speed management (cognitive integration speed management training) to hazard management, thereby developing cognitive integration hazard management training for young drivers. Hence, this study is specifically designed to curb the alarming trend in young driver fatalities on Australian roads. The results of the research will provide clear direction to road au ....Improving novice drivers' speed and hazard management. The aim of the study is to extend the evidence-based approach we have developed for speed management (cognitive integration speed management training) to hazard management, thereby developing cognitive integration hazard management training for young drivers. Hence, this study is specifically designed to curb the alarming trend in young driver fatalities on Australian roads. The results of the research will provide clear direction to road authorities and driver training providers as to effective training strategies to improve young driver training, and ultimately improve road safety with this vulnerable population.Read moreRead less