Development of the Communication Interface for the Cognitive Model of Complicated Human-Computer Interaction Task

The cognitive modeling of the HCI task has been a hot area in HCI research. And it is an important method to understand the cognitive decision process and mechanism behind operators’ behavior. Since the software of HCI task and the software of cognitive modeling generally run on different platforms, it is critical to develop the communication interface between different platforms, especially in the cognitive modeling research of the simulated manual RVD task. To realize a real-time interaction between the cognitive model developed by Common Lisp language and the task simulator developed by VC++ language, this paper developed the communication interface between these two platforms. And the interface is developed based on UDP and the multicast technique. This paper proposed a solution with the foreign-function interface feature of Common Lisp Language to solve the problem that Common Lisp Language doesn’t support the multicast technique directly. Test results showed that the communication interface could support data sending and receiving and fulfill the requirement of the real-time communication. Introduction Manual RVD (Rendezvous and Docking) task is a complicated human-computer interaction task for astronauts. Also this task is a critical research content for space ergonomics and long-duration space flight in the future [1] [2]. Baozhi Wang, Guohua Jiang, Jiangang Chao (ET al.) designed and realized a semi-physical ergonomics experimental system for the purpose of studying ergonomics problem in manned RVD task. This platform accurately simulated the RVD task in dynamics and could automatically generate behavior and performance data of human [3]. Recently, the method called cognitive modelling becomes more and more popular in the research of cognitive science [4]. In this method, a calculation model is established to evaluate the cognitive theory and phenomenon. Compared with traditional experimentation, cognitive modeling costs much less and can predict task performance, workload and probable fault quantitatively, which is a new way to evaluate the design of human-computer interface. For this reason, we built a cognitive model for RVD task and this model was established based on the cognitive architecture of Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) [5]. The cognitive architecture is an expatiation for the architecture of brain at the abstract level, which explains how the brain think [6]. In order to evaluate and verify the cognitive model, we should guarantee that the cognitive model and the subjects work at the same environment. So the cognitive model should communicate with the simulator in real time. The method of communication is usually based on network. Internationally, people usually take the method of UDP (User Datagram Protocol) [7, 8]. For the purpose of realizing real-time communication between cognitive model and simulator [9], we developed the interface between them. And the UDP can satisfy the requirement of real-time interaction. Compared with TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), the UDP is faster in the transmission speed and costs less to run in the system. However, the UDP is less reliable in the data transmission. UDP supports unicast, broadcast and multicast. Multicast means sending datagram to a mainframe unit in the network. And a mainframe can join in one or several multicast unit [10]. So multicast satisfies the requirement of dynamics and can save network bandwidth to reduce the 2nd Workshop on Advanced Research and Technology in Industry Applications (WARTIA 2016) © 2016. The authors Published by Atlantis Press 1377 workload of network. The architecture of ACT-R is established based on Common Lisp language. Unfortunately, the ACT-R architecture doesn’t supply the network communication interface. So we have to realize the communication protocol based on Common Lisp language. In this paper, Allegro Common Lisp was chosen to realize the communication protocol. It supports the TCP and UDP, but can’t support multicast directly [11]. In this paper, we took use of the characteristic of supporting Foreign-Function Interface (FFI) in Common Lisp language to realize the UDP multicast protocol. Using C++ language to realize the UDP multicast protocol has been a mature technology, so it is not a key point in our paper. Overall scheme In this simulated Manual RVD task, cognitive model simulates the astronaut to do the manual RVD task. The simulator stands for the task environment. In terms of communication interface, the cognitive model based on ACT-R architecture is a client and the simulator is a server. The overall scheme is shown in Fig. 1. Client: Cognitive Model of Complicated Human‐ Computer Interaction Task Server: Simulator of Complicated Human‐ Computer Interaction Task Communication Interface