TRR 62:  Companion-Technology for Cognitive Technical Systems

• Subject Area: Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering ; Construction Engineering and Architecture ; Medicine
• Term: from 2009 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 54371073

The research programme offers the vision of future technical systems being companion systems - cognitive technical systems that provide their functionality in a completely individualized way: They adapt to a user‘s capabilities, preferences, requirements, and current needs and take into account the situation, the emotional state, and the disposition of the individual user. Furthermore, they are continually available, cooperative, and reliable, and appear as competent and empathic assistants to their users. To realize this vision, scientists in the areas of informatics, electrical engineering, psychology, neurobiology, and medicine form an interdisciplinary consortium to systematically explore cognitive capabilities and their implementation within technical systems. Research is focussed on characteristics such as competence, individuality, adaptability, availability, cooperativeness, and trustworthiness. It is aimed at both implementing these so-called companion characteristics through appropriate cognitive processes and investigating the underlying principles by reference to psychological behavior models as well as to brain mechanisms. The research effort will lay the foundations for a technology that has the potential of high-grade innovation by enabling the development of completely individualized technical systems.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios

Completed projects

• A01 - Adaptive Planning and Decision-Making (Project Head Biundo-Stephan, Susanne )
• A02 - Knowledge Modeling (Project Heads Biundo-Stephan, Susanne ;  Glimm, Birte ;  Palm, Günther )
• A03 - Prevention and reduction of mistrust and reactance in user-companion-interaction processes (Project Heads Frommer, Jörg ;  Rösner, Dietmar )
• A04 - Neurophysiology of stimulus evaluation and behavioral strategy change. Support and intervention (Project Head Ohl, Frank W. )
• B01 - Assisitive and Adaptive Dialogue Management (Project Head Minker, Wolfgang )
• B02 - Brain mechanisms of information processing in dialogs (Project Heads Brechmann, André ;  Scheich, Henning )
• B03 - Multimodal Interaction (Project Heads Huckauf, Anke ;  Weber, Michael )
• B04 - Characterization and Modelling of Speech Controlled Information Seeking Dialogues (Project Head Nürnberger, Andreas )
• B05 - Adaptive Pervasive User Interfaces (Project Head Rukzio, Enrico )
• C01 - Environment perception (Project Heads Al-Hamadi, Ayoub ;  Dietmayer, Klaus )
• C02 - Situation related recognition of application relevant dispositions from speech (Project Head Wendemuth, Andreas )
• C03 - Mechanisms of nonverbal communication: Emotion recognition based on facial expressions and analysis of head and body postures (Project Heads Al-Hamadi, Ayoub ;  Michaelis, Bernd ;  Neumann, Heiko )
• C04 - Psychobiological Emotion Recognition (Project Heads Hoffmann, Holger Alexander ;  Traue, Harald C. )
• C05 - Information fusion for emotion and disposition recognition (Project Heads Schwenker, Friedhelm ;  Wendemuth, Andreas )
• MGK - Integrated Research Training Group (Project Heads Biundo-Stephan, Susanne ;  Wendemuth, Andreas )
• T01 - Companion-Technology for Augmented-Reality-Based Worker Assistance in Automotive Applications (Project Heads Al-Hamadi, Ayoub ;  Huckauf, Anke ;  Michaelis, Bernd )
• Z01 - Project Management and Coordination (Project Head Biundo-Stephan, Susanne )
• Z03 - Data Management and System Integration (Project Heads Biundo-Stephan, Susanne ;  Wendemuth, Andreas )

• Applicant Institution: Universität Ulm
• Co-Applicant Institution: Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg
• Participating Institution: Leibniz-Institut für Neurobiologie (LIN)
• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Susanne Biundo-Stephan