A Modular Research Platform – Proof-of-Concept of a Flexible Experiment Setup Developed for Rapid Testing of Simulators, UIs and Human Physiology Sensors

Abstract

This work presents a modular research platform to design, test and run human-machine interaction (HMI) experiments. Traditionally, HMI experiments are time and resource consuming, particularly in the piloting phase. Furthermore, such experiment setups are often rigid and only fit to one particular hypothesis. Thus, significant time is needed to alter the setup to new hypotheses, if this is possible at all. The platform presented is a technical proof-of-concept of a highly flexible experiment setup, which can rapidly be adapted to alternative hypotheses. Examples of interchangeable modules include simulator software (context), user interface (independent variable) and human operator physiology sensors (dependent variable). An agile product development methodology, Wayfairing, was used to accomplish this.