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From Human–Machine Interaction to Human–Machine Cooperation: Status and Progress

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Computing and Artificial Intelligence".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 June 2025 | Viewed by 4323

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Associate Professor, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: human-machine interaction, cognitive informatics, smart robotics, virtual agents, IoT, artificial intelligence

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Guest Editor
iCOM Research, University of London, London WC1E 7HU, UK
Interests: artificial intelligence; computing in social science; arts and humanities; human-computer interaction; discourse analysis; cognitive science

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Human–machine interaction is all about how people and automated systems interact and communicate with each other within virtual, augmented, or real environments. With the advance of AI and cyber–physical systems, the research fulcrum has gradually moved from interaction towards cooperation.

We are pleased to announce a Special Issue on challenging and innovative topics in the field of human–machine interaction and cooperation, including those related to theoretical aspects, methodology, and practice.

Developing systems such as collaborative, social, or industrial robots and computers; bioinspired systems; and digital systems and devices for the Internet of Things (IoT), Metaverse, and blockchain technology is highly interdisciplinary and often involves innovations and breakthroughs in many diverse technical areas, including but not limited to human behaviour modelling, task and motion planning, learning, activity recognition and intention prediction, novel interaction devices, user interface concepts and technologies, multimodal interaction and cooperation, evaluation methods and tools, emotions in HMI, environments and tools, etc.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

  • H2M and M2M interaction and cooperation theory and applications;
  • Cyber–physical systems;
  • Social and biomedical signal processing;
  • Learning by example;
  • Multimodal perception;
  • Human behavior modeling;
  • Activity and intention recognition;
  • Intelligent manufacturing;
  • Human–machine dialogue systems;
  • Planning and decision making under uncertainty;
  • Context-aware and affective systems;
  • Safe navigation around humans;
  • Intelligent systems for training/teaching humans;
  • VR, AR, and XR collaboration environments.

Dr. Tomislav Stipančić
Prof. Dr. Duska Rosenberg
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

30 pages, 13318 KiB  
Article
Towards a System Dynamics Framework for Human–Machine Learning Decisions: A Case Study of New York Citi Bike
by Ganesh Sankaran, Marco A. Palomino, Martin Knahl and Guido Siestrup
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(22), 10647; https://doi.org/10.3390/app142210647 - 18 Nov 2024
Viewed by 412
Abstract
The growing number of algorithmic decision-making environments, which blend machine and bounded human rationality, strengthen the need for a holistic performance assessment of such systems. Indeed, this combination amplifies the risk of local rationality, necessitating a robust evaluation framework. We propose a novel [...] Read more.
The growing number of algorithmic decision-making environments, which blend machine and bounded human rationality, strengthen the need for a holistic performance assessment of such systems. Indeed, this combination amplifies the risk of local rationality, necessitating a robust evaluation framework. We propose a novel simulation-based model to quantify algorithmic interventions within organisational contexts, combining causal modelling and data science algorithms. To test our framework’s viability, we present a case study based on a bike-share system focusing on inventory balancing through crowdsourced user actions. Utilising New York’s Citi Bike service data, we highlight the frequent misalignment between incentives and their necessity. Our model examines the interaction dynamics between user and service provider rule-driven responses and algorithms predicting flow rates. This examination demonstrates why understanding these dynamics is essential for devising effective incentive policies. The study showcases how sophisticated machine learning models, with the ability to forecast underlying market demands unconstrained by historical supply issues, can cause imbalances that induce user behaviour, potentially spoiling plans without timely interventions. Our approach allows problems to surface during the design phase, potentially avoiding costly deployment errors in the joint performance of human and AI decision-makers. Full article
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23 pages, 2757 KiB  
Article
A Comprehensive Evaluation of Features and Simple Machine Learning Algorithms for Electroencephalographic-Based Emotion Recognition
by Mayra Álvarez-Jiménez, Tania Calle-Jimenez and Myriam Hernández-Álvarez
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(6), 2228; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14062228 - 7 Mar 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1148
Abstract
The study of electroencephalographic (EEG) signals has gained popularity in recent years because they are unlikely to intentionally fake brain activity. However, the reliability of the results is still subject to various noise sources and potential inaccuracies inherent to the acquisition process. Analyzing [...] Read more.
The study of electroencephalographic (EEG) signals has gained popularity in recent years because they are unlikely to intentionally fake brain activity. However, the reliability of the results is still subject to various noise sources and potential inaccuracies inherent to the acquisition process. Analyzing these signals involves three main processes: feature extraction, feature selection, and classification. The present study extensively evaluates feature sets across domains and their impact on emotion recognition. Feature selection improves results across the different domains. Additionally, hybrid models combining features from various domains offer a superior performance when applying the public DEAP dataset for emotion classification using EEG signals. Time, frequency, time–frequency, and spatial domain attributes and their combinations were analyzed. The effectiveness of the input vectors for the classifiers was validated using SVM, KNN, and ANN, which are simple classification algorithms selected for their widespread use and better performance in the state of the art. The use of simple machine learning algorithms makes the findings particularly valuable for real-time emotion recognition applications where the computational resources and processing time are often limited. After the analysis stage, feature vector combinations were proposed to identify emotions in four quadrants of the valence–arousal representation space using the DEAP dataset. This research achieved a classification accuracy of 96% using hybrid features in the four domains and the ANN classifier. A lower computational cost was obtained in the frequency domain. Full article
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25 pages, 4793 KiB  
Article
Integrated Multilevel Production Planning Solution According to Industry 5.0 Principles
by Maja Trstenjak, Petar Gregurić, Žarko Janić and Domagoj Salaj
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(1), 160; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14010160 - 24 Dec 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1820
Abstract
This paper presents the development and implementation of Integrated Multilevel Planning Solution (IMPS) a solution adhering to Industry 4.0 and 5.0 standards. Today, companies face challenges in understanding how new orders would impact existing production plans when there is limited traceability and information [...] Read more.
This paper presents the development and implementation of Integrated Multilevel Planning Solution (IMPS) a solution adhering to Industry 4.0 and 5.0 standards. Today, companies face challenges in understanding how new orders would impact existing production plans when there is limited traceability and information flow in their manufacturing process. The digital transformation of the production planning system enables a company to overcome the current challenges; however, to overcome the usual barriers of digital transformation a specialized solution for each company should be developed. IMPS was developed by first understanding the problems in the existing production planning process through a gemba (jap. for “actual place”) walk and interviews with stakeholders. The solution was designed with a human-centric approach and consists of seven components (Design System App (DSA), SAP (Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing), Microsoft Project, Microsoft Project Server, The Project Group (TPG) PSLink software, TPG ProjectLink, Tableau, and Smart Digital Assistance), which are well connected and integrated into the existing design. The system is accessible to the end user to find information, as the principles of Industry 5.0 require. A multivariant and multiuser planning capability was achieved with an interconnected Gantt chart of the master project with the ability to drill down into individual projects and custom views for various types of internal users. Most of the production planning solutions found in the literature were optimization-oriented, related to the improvements of the calculation methods within the planning activities in order to achieve a better efficiency of the planning system. Here, the goal was to achieve a system architecture that enabled a unique solution for design-to-order manufacturing without complex interventions into the existing system, which overcomes the most common barriers in Industry 4.0 implementations which are the human resistance to change, high investments, a lack of needed skills and knowledge for its implementation and use, and challenges of the adaptability to the new system. IMPS (ver 1.0) is a hybrid solution for SMEs, which aims to advance their planning system from the most commonly used Excel sheets towards a more advanced system but has financial and knowledge limitations from its implementation of highly complex software (ver. 1.0). Full article
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