Designing Positive AI: How optimizing for contextual wellbeing inspired a design method for artificial intelligence that promotes human flourishing

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), from <i>curatorial</i> AI in YouTube to <i>generative</i> AI in ChatGPT, demonstrates both potential for progress and risks of harm. Adopting a Positive Design approach aimed at directly enhancing human wellbeing, this dissertation develops the concept of...

Classifying Human Manual Control Behavior Using LSTM Recurrent Neural Networks

This article discusses a long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network that uses raw time-domain data obtained in compensatory tracking tasks as input features for classifying (the adaptation of) human manual control with single- and double-integrator controlled element dynamics. Data from two different experiments were used to train...

A framework for designing AI systems that support community wellbeing

Introduction: Designing artificial intelligence (AI) to support health and wellbeing is an important and broad challenge for technologists, designers, and policymakers. Drawing upon theories of AI and cybernetics, this article offers a design framework for designing intelligent systems to optimize human wellbeing. We focus on the production...

Autonomous Houses and Architecture of Cybernetics in the 1970s: Towards Limits and Undeveloped Potentials of the Sustainable

In 1969, English researcher Gordon Pask published an article named “The Architectural Relevance of Cybernetics”, defining a theoretical framework concerning a cybernetic theory of architecture. Throughout the 1970s, the Cambridge Research Group designed the Autonomous House, a self-sufficient dwelling in terms of energy and food. Part of the...

Design for wellbeing during Covid-19: A cybernetic perspective on data feedback loops in complex socIotechnical systems

The COVID-19 pandemic has put wellbeing on the global agenda like never<br/>before. Many businesses, organizations, and even governments have recognized<br/>wellbeing as a formal policy goal. This paper addresses the question of how to design<br/>complex systems to improve the wellbeing of their stakeholders. We present a case of<br/>helping a...

Quantifying Motor Skills in Early-Stage Parkinson's Disease Using Human Controller Modeling

This paper investigates the potential of using a manual pursuit tracking task for quantifying loss of motor skills due to Parkinson's disease (PD), by applying human controller (HC) modeling techniques. With this approach, it is possible to obtain detailed quantitative data on motor performance in terms of control gain, response delay,...

MyWellnessCheck: Designing a student and staff wellbeing feedback loop to inform university policy and governance

“My Wellness Check” is a well-being assessment system designed to support wellbeing feedback loops within large organizations, like universities. In this paper, we present a narrative describing the human-centred design process used to develop a context-sensitive well-being feedback system within a large technical university during the COVID-19...

Musculoskeletal Driver Model for the Steering Feedback Controller

This paper aims to find a mathematical justification for the non-linear steady state steering haptic response as a function of driver arm posture. Experiments show that different arm postures, that is, same hands location on the steering wheel but at different initial steering angles, result in a change in maximum driver arm stiffness. This...

Effects of Multisine Signal Bandwidth on Eye Movement Dynamics

In the analysis of human motor skills, tracking tasks with multisine target signals are often performed as they allow for quantitative measurement, identification, and modeling of human control dynamics. In this paper, the same "cybernetic" approach is taken to analyze eye movement dynamics in gaze tracking tasks, where participants had to...

Analysis of Human Skill Development in Manual Ramp-Tracking Tasks

Human modelling approaches are typically limited to feedback-only, compensatory tracking tasks. Advances in system identification techniques allow us to consider more realistic tasks that involve feedforward and even precognitive control. In this paper we study the human development of a feedforward control response while learning to...

Dual-axis manual control: Performance degradation, axis asymmetry, crossfeed, and intermittency

Vehicle control tasks require simultaneous control of multiple degrees-of-freedom. Most multi-axis human-control modeling is limited to the modeling of multiple fully independent single axes. This paper contributes to the understanding of multi-axis control behavior and draws a more realistic and complete picture of dual-axis manual control....

Fundamental issues in manual control cybernetics

Manual control cybernetics aims to understand and describe how humans control vehicles and devices, such that more effective human-machine interfaces can be designed. Current cybernetics theory is primarily based on technology and analysis methods developed in the 1960s and has shown to be limited in its capability to capture the full breadth of...

Constraints in Identification of Multi-Loop Feedforward Human Control Models

The human controller (HC) can greatly improve target-tracking performance by utilizing a feedforward operation on the target signal, in addition to a feedback response. System identification methods are used to determine the correct HC model structure: purely feedback or a combined feedforward/feedback model. In this paper, we investigate three...

The Predictability of a Target Signal Affects Manual Feedforward Control

In the manual control of a dynamic system, the human controller (HC) is often required to follow a visible and predictable reference path. Using the predictable aspect of a reference signal, through applying feedforward control, the HC can significantly improve performance as compared to a purely feedback control strategy. A proper definition of...

Cybernetics of Tunnel-in-the-Sky Displays

Consensus is growing that the flexibility gained with the introduction of programmable, electronic cockpit displays in the 1980s must be exploited to the full extent. An important candidate to become the primary flight display of future flight decks is the tunnel-in-the-sky display, a perspective flight-path display that shows the reference...

Flight-path vector symbology in tunnel-in-the-sky displays

Tracking curved trajectories with a tunnel-in-the-sky display