Human-Machine Interactions

In various automated machines currently used in agriculture and field applications, the operator still retains responsibility for numerous other tasks the machines perform. Even with completely autonomous machines of the future, ergonomics will continue to play an important role for the overall system performance. This chapter on human-machine interactions, therefore, covers four distinct topics around ergonomics and how humans interact with machines. In the first section, readers can expect to gain an understanding of human-machine interaction associated with agricultural machines. This discussion will be followed by some description of the tools for assessing human-machine interaction. The third section will discuss the progression of technologies that have been used to support the operator of an agricultural machine up to and including fully autonomous agricultural machines. In the final section, future challenges associated with remote supervision of autonomous agricultural machines will be discussed.