Comprehension and decision based modeling of cooperation behavior between drivers in dynamic traffic situations and its methodological foundations - CoMove

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Martin Baumann; Professorin Dr. Meike Jipp
• Subject Area: Human Factors, Ergonomics, Human-Machine Systems ; Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: from 2015 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 272996369

In the first phase of the Priority Program "Cooperatively interacting automobiles" the predecessor project focussed on the cognitive processes of situation comprehension that represent the basis for the initiation of cooperation between drivers in dynamic, potentially critical traffic situations. The goal was to create an empirically validated basis for the creation of a trustworthy, comprehensible, and acceptable automation on the basis of a deep understanding of these cognitive processes that determine how drivers identify conflicts in traffic and how they come to a solution for these conflicts. The major goals of the follow-up project CoMove are to investigate and model the course of action when drivers cooperate with each other in more complex traffic situations and the development and validation of new methods for describing and evaluating dynamic cooperation behaviour. Accordingly, the investigation of decision making processes in the course of communication and cooperation processes when several drivers coordinate their actions while cooperatively executing manoeuvers are now in the focus of both empirical investigations and modelling activities. Starting from results on accepted and non-accepted cooperative solution strategies gained in the predecessor project we will investigate how action coordination between drivers develops as a function of situational characteristics, which decisions drivers make as reaction to observed behavioural communication signals from other drivers, which actions drivers execute to signal willingness to cooperate and need for cooperation, how driver characteristics, such as personality and driver state, influence these processes, and with which methods these coordination processes can be described. We will also consider situations where the coordination between partners is not successful or optimal. The goal of these empirical investigations is to gain detailed knowledge about the coordination processes as a basis for the creation of action planning strategies of cooperatively interacting automobiles that are both comprehensible and predictable for the surrounding human drivers as they reflect familiar human behaviour and interaction strategies, and that allow automated vehicles to solve traffic conflicts with human drivers safely and efficiently.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1835: Kooperativ interagierende Automobile