Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Agricultural guidance systems have changed dramatically over a short period.  Only two decades ago, there were no sophisticated navigation devices available commercially.  In recent years, there have been numerous devices based on global positioning system (GPS) technology beginning with "lightbar" navigation aids (that displayed supplemental navigation information for the driver).  Currently, auto-steer systems (that make steering corrections for the driver) are becoming common on Canadian farms.  It seems inevitable that increasingly-sophisticated navigation devices will be available to farmers.  The current trend is towards semi-autonomous and autonomous agricultural vehicles.  This rapid change in technology has changed the role to be played by the operator of an agricultural vehicle.  Human factors principles are needed to understand how to best utilize the capabilities of the human operator in these new human-machine systems.  To gain the best understanding of how the human operator interacts with agricultural machines, it is necessary to track head and eye movements of the operators. Funding is requested to purchase the faceLAB system for tracking head and eye movements.  This equipment is capable of tracking head and eye movements in either a simulator environment or in a moving vehicle.  Data are analzyed by the system, effectively making the researcher more efficient.