The post-pandemic period was a critical point for the aviation industry; the shortage of workforce meant difficulties in keeping up with tight aircraft maintenance schedules. To deal with this, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines designed the Back-on-Track program, which emphasized introducing automation as a long-term goal to deal with labour shortages. While there is an attempt to gradually introduce autonomous technologies into the workflow, the opinions and inputs of the employees meant to collaborate with said technologies are not often considered. This gives the impression of a technology push, persuading the employees to collaborate with them. That is where this project comes in; it focuses on technological pull, using the employees’ feedback as input in introducing an autonomous system.

This project is performed at the MRO Lab and aims to aid the aircraft towing operations at KLM’s Hangar 12. KLM uses a remote-controlled towing vehicle called the Mototok to tow an aircraft into and out of the hangar for maintenance. The MRO Lab intends to make this towing process more autonomous, making this project their first attempt to do so.

The project starts with establishing a main research question and sub-research questions, followed by understanding the towing process, specifically its phases, its people, and the interactions occurring between them. To visualize the towing process, a scaled-down, 3D printed version of the setup was created with all towing-relevant infrastructure. An experimental interview arranged with two Mototok drivers helped visualize the towing procedure through the setup, resulting in the development of a process map, containing every step of the towing process, and an interaction map, linking every interaction between operators with the process map.

The first novel aspect of this thesis is a custom framework developed to identify that the safety verification role of the walkers is an ideal starting point to introduce autonomy. This required structuring the flow of information through the Rational Agent Model and breaking the process into functional clusters, followed by the consideration of key inputs from a safety and compliance perspective. Research indicated that the Rational Agent Model matched closely with the Parasuraman, Sheridan, and Wickens framework, which also provides a scale for autonomous system levels. Using its scale as a reference, a Level 2 autonomous system was chosen to replace the safety verification role of the walkers.

Before using the technology in towing, it must be tested. A system-level test was chosen over a product-level test to ensure the autonomy can be evaluated in a context-specific manner. Since the information perceived by the autonomous system would directly impact the decision-making of the drivers, this decision-making was chosen as the test area for the system. However, it was decided to first test the decision-making with the walkers, so that the natural decision-making behaviour could be revealed, along with more specific factors that could be used to test the decision-making of the drivers.

The Critical Decision Method was used to set up the decision-making experiment, which involved an experiment followed by an interview with the driver. The test was based on the driver’s decision-making under certain worst-case scenarios, which they are not trained for, but could occur in towing conditions. A specific situation of the driver receiving multiple inputs was incorporated into the experiment to further understand worst-case decision-making. The scaled-down setup involved simulating the driver and walker’s vision via cameras to maintain a more realistic vision of the towing environment. Results from the scaled-down experiments revealed a decision-making model.

The interview revealed that the driver’s ability to make decisions was heavily reliant on his trust in the walker’s inputs. Thus, the challenge for the perception system test would be to understand if the driver trusts the inputs provided. Guidelines were provided to design this test while addressing any possible limitations.

Finally, the project is concluded and reflected on by answering the main research question and discussing its implications for academia and KLM. The next possible steps to take this project forward are also discussed.

In recent years, the focus of automation has shifted to collaboration between humans and robots. It is clear that human-centered design is crucial to achieve a successful collaboration, as it improves job quality, builds trust, and avoids design flaws by involving workers throughout the process. However, designing successful human-robot collaboration is difficult due to the multitude of stakeholders and the complexity of real world environments.

According to the literature, several pitfalls can hinder successful automation. First, automation is often perceived as a substitute for human work, leading designers to overlook how automation impacts the overall functioning of the system and neglect human factors in the design process. However, in practice, human work will always coexist with automation. Second, there is often too much focus on technical aspects, which causes the broader implications for the surrounding environment to be ignored and results in a failure to design for human work. Third, there is a gap between designers and workers, leading to an oversimplified understanding of human work and the implementation of technologies that do not align with workers’ needs. To address these issues, workers must be involved in the design process from the beginning through human-centered design methods. Additionally, the broader implications of automation must be understood.

The aim of this thesis was to explore how a human-centered transition to a more automated work environment can be ensured at the start of automation projects. To investigate this, a case study was conducted on hydrographic survey work in a major Dutch seaport: The Port of Rotterdam. In this port, the transition to a more automated work environment is planned but not yet defined, creating an opportunity to develop a proactive approach.

First, in order to get a clear picture of the trends that shape autonomous shipping, an analysis of the macro environment was done by looking at political, environmental, sociodemographic, technological, economic and legal factors (PESTEL). From this it became apparent that there are many developments related to autonomous shipping in the industry, like the use of shore control centers and that Dutch regulations allow for unmanned vessels in 2025, making it likely that unmanned surface vessels (USV) will become operational in the near future. This thesis proposes an approach consisting of four practical steps to secure a more human-centered transition at the start of automation projects and applies them to the case study:

1. Identify key actors in the current process
From mapping out the ecosystem and information flows, it became clear that surveyors, skippers and VTS operators would be in direct contact with unmanned surface vessels and that their communication is key in survey operations in the port.

2. Understand the broadness of their work
Through context research it became clear that surveying at high traffic areas is intense for skippers, that surveyors dislike errors in the data and that VTS operators value predictability and experience overload in their work.

3. Understand their expectations of automation
Through interviews with surveyors, skippers and VTS operators, it became clear that the implementation of an unmanned surface vessel could have a negative impact on their work. For VTS operators, the USV could be an extra burden at peak times, skippers disliked working from an office and surveyors did not like increased measurement errors and technical issues.

4. Explore value creation with worker-technology fit
Through exploring worker automation fit it became clear that a hybrid scenario is necessary to allow skippers to also work in the field. Additionally, it is important that workers closely collaborate with development teams to quickly resolve technical issues with the USV. Since there is currently no digital VTS, a human skipper must remain in direct contact with a VTS operator for now. Here, communication delays must be prevented. A potential advantage for VTS operators is that the USV could share its tracks in the future. The USV must also be able to operate in areas with high traffic density. One way to achieve this is by leveraging the flexibility of remote control, ensuring that the USV is deployed in these areas only when vessel traffic is low. This would prevent VTS operators from being overloaded by the USV during peak times. It would also ensure that skippers do not have to conduct surveys mainly in busy areas because the USV cannot do so, and that surveyors do not receive poor-quality data due to prop wash disturbances from other vessels.

These insights led to a final scenario with a phased out implementation in which a hybrid, remote control approach is presented.

This thesis aims to design the future roles of human operators in an autonomous bus system in Autonomous Airside Operations at Schiphol Airport. The research was conducted in collaboration with Delft University of Technology and Royal Schiphol Group, focusing specifically on the implementation of autonomous buses for passenger transportation between terminals and aircraft.

The study employs a human-centered design approach since the successful integration of technology relies not only on its technical capabilities but also on human operators, who will work in and interact with an autonomous bus system. By placing humans at the center of the design process, a valuable future human operator role is created, that contributes to the successful implementation of an autonomous bus system in AAO.

To emphathize with the current bus operations, context studies at Schiphol Airport are conducted with 3 key roles in the current bus operation. Additionally, 11 expert interviews were conducted to gather different perspectives on the future human operator role in AAO.

The context research revealed 4 current operator responsibilities besides driving-related tasks. Additionally, based on the expert interviews, 5 future human operator responsibilities in an Autonomous Airside Operations are identified. Combinations between current and future responsibilities resulted in the design of 4 potential future scenarios, each with a different future human operator role.

The study provides 4 human operator roles in potential future scenarios where human operators remain crucial in an autonomous bus system, which is: (1) the role of the safety driver to enable autonomous driving as an addition to manual operations; (2) the role of host/hostess or fleet coordinator to provide onboard assistance; (3) the role of the (de)boarding assistant to ensure a safe boarding and deboarding procedure; and (4) the role of the rescuer to immediately operate in case of an emergency. These scenarios are further developed into animation videos, which serve as speculative design artifacts to envision, reflect, and discuss potential future scenarios.

As automation technology continues to transform various industries, achieving both high operational reliability and high efficiency emerges as a critical challenge in task delegation between humans and Automated Systems (ASs). This project, conducted in collaboration with the Royal Schiphol Group (RSG), investigates the intricate dynamics of Human-Automation Collaboration (HAC) in the context of Passenger Boarding Bridge (PBB) operations at the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The design goal is for organizations to strike a balance between the decision-making authority retained by humans, and that can be transferred to ASs.
Through a combination of literature study, context research, in-depth interviews, and surveys, this study synthesizes insights to understand the changing nature of tasks, identify influential factors, and determine the appropriate level of human involvement with the main research question: “In the different PBB operation types (e.g., semi-auto controlled in a PBB, semi-auto controlled outside PBB), which tasks can be delegated to automated systems, and which tasks should be performed by humans?”
The main insights indicate that high-precision tasks are identified as potential candidates for AS delegation, while tasks requiring clear communication and meticulous inspection align better with human management. The study underscores the significance of effective information exchange, emphasizing the multifaceted roles of humans beyond mere data exchange.
To address this, two main outputs were introduced: one is a decision-making board game as a speculative probe called PBB, and the other one is a roadmap for RSG’s future vision, which can empower organizations with insights into the evolving nature of tasks for both humans and ASs. The PBB game is expected to allow diverse stakeholders to enact multiple scenarios in various decision pathways aligned with different levels of automation. Further, the roadmap will envision the optimal future scenario, leading to actionable plans for organizations with a holistic understanding of Human-Automation Collaboration (HAC).