Contact Dr Anne-Marie Oostveen
- Email: J.M.Oostveen@cranfield.ac.uk
- Twitter:
Areas of expertise
- Industrial Automation
- Industrial Ergonomics and Human Factors
Background
Anne-Marie studied Cultural Anthropology (MA) and Social Informatics (PhD) at the University of Amsterdam. Prior to joining 老司机福利社 in April 2020, Anne-Marie held research positions at the University of Oxford, the University of Amsterdam, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in Amsterdam, and the Rathenau Institute in The Hague.
Anne-Marie's work has been supported by a range of funders including the European Commission (FP7, H2020, HORIZON), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and the University of Oxford's Fell Fund. She held a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship exploring e-democracy technologies and the problem of public trust (2007-2009). She has published academic peer-reviewed articles and conference papers, reports, and magazine articles. You can find an up-to-date list of the most relevant publications on ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7078-4275).
Most recently, Anne-Marie was a Principal Investigator on the EU-funded FastPass project. This project established and demonstrated a harmonised, modular approach for Automated Border Control (ABC) gates at airports, sea borders, and land borders.
Research opportunities
Anne-Marie's research focuses on the social and ethical implications of new and emerging technologies. She takes a problem-oriented view to focus on the interaction between technological development and social change and has been involved in both the design of technology and studying its use. She adopts a participatory approach in which technology is designed and implemented not only for the users but also with their involvement.
In previous research, she conducted qualitative and quantitative studies on the implications of large-scale, complex systems (e.g. for public services provision, for e-voting, for automated border crossing) and on the usability and acceptance of emerging technologies. In this context, she studied the needs, values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours of various stakeholders and social groups involved in the use of these new technologies.
Anne-Marie is also interested in exploring what the motivations and social trends are behind new innovations and whether laypeople can meaningfully engage in discussions about emerging technologies and the changes they bring to everyday life. Whose beliefs, values, and morality do these technologies mirror, and how can a balanced societal debate be created, leading to a socially responsible use of technologies? More recent work has focused on surveillance technologies such as child tracking technology and biometrics, and on digital manufacturing technologies Britain.
Current activities
CURRENT PROJECTS
Within SATM's Industrial Psychology and Human Factors group (IPHF) Anne-Marie works on the following projects:
FEROX: Fostering and Enabling AI, Data and Robotics Technologies for Supporting Human Workers in Harvesting Wild Food
Wild berries and mushrooms are considered to be a national treasure of Nordic countries. These food products require zero resources to cultivate as they grow naturally in the forests. It is estimated that less than 10% of the total annual wild berry crop is harvested from the forests. The main challenge in collecting wild berries lies in the manual forest harvesting, namely pickers' working conditions. Due to the short season, the majority of the work is conducted by foreigners with limited knowledge of the language, culture, and forests. The FEROX project (https://ferox.fbk.eu) aims to utilise advances in AI, data, and robotics to improve the working conditions of the wild berry pickers. The project will employ autonomous drones equipped with various sensors to acquire data, build 3D models of the forests and, therefore, accurately estimate berries' locations, amount and types. The collected data will be used to build AI models to help workers locate the berries and optimise their operations. In addition, FEROX will provide wild berry pickers with navigation and locating services and physical support to improve their working conditions and boost their trust and confidence. The holistic solution of FEROX will contribute to the overall safety of the workers by automatically monitoring the pickers and providing aid where it is needed. As a consequence, FEROX is expected to attract locals and hiking enthusiasts to work during summer in collecting wild products, hence, increasing the overall yield of the wild berries. These outcomes will open business opportunities for EU companies to adapt the solutions developed for industrialised cultivation as well as support global sustainability as technology providers for safe and sustainable berry harvesting. To demonstrate the solution, FEROX will conduct its tests in the forests in Finland with the support of the wild berries and mushroom 'Arktiset Aromit' (Arctic Flavours) Association.
Within this European funded project we will concentrate on investigating current manual work processes and work conditions of berry pickers, user requirements, socio-ethical analysis, and user acceptance evaluation.
Call: HORIZON-CL4-2021-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01, Project ID: 101070440, Start date: 01/04/2022, Duration: 36 Months
Made Smarter Innovation - Research Centre for Smart, Collaborative Industrial Robotics
The Research Centre for Smart Collaborative Industrial Robotics (EPSRC and UKRI funded) based in Loughborough, Strathclyde, Cranfield, Bristol, and Warwick Universities, will look to eliminate barriers to adopting robotics and accelerate their widespread use in manufacturing. One of the objectives of the research is to define a pathway to increase social acceptability. Our work will focus on societal and cultural change through smart automation.
Automation is expected to transform the way work is done but even the most sophisticated technology will fail to meet expectations if the environment and potential users are not considered in its implementation. Continuously studying and monitoring the cultural and societal impact of increased robotics technology will be essential to inform policy, regulatory, and ethical frameworks throughout the lifecycle of the proposed automation and as a benchmark for future applications. The requirements of emerging jobs and future skills also need to be captured to formulate appropriate training programmes across the educational spectrum. We need to consider the implementation of new automation from multiple socio-economic viewpoints e.g. who are the key stakeholders (now and future) and how can we effectively engage with agencies such as trade unions, insurance underwriters and lawyers to ensure that all stakeholders recognise the safety and reliability of collaborative systems and their net potential benefit. Furthermore, we will develop an ethical and consensual framework that ensures acceptance and trust and a net positive impact of collaborative robotics. The true potential socio-economic impact of collaborative automation on industry and society will be investigated and a roadmap created for how this knowledge can be used to guide and inform policy makers. Acceptance and success will depend on the correct skills and training being present among users, and how this will change with on-going technology development.
EPSRC Reference: EP/V062158/1, Start date: 30 September 2021, End date: 29 March 2025
PREVIOUS PROJECTS
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded DigiTOP project (https://digitop.ac.uk/) focuses on the psychosocial factors (e.g. trust, technical awareness, ethical issues) that may influence the acceptance and adoption of Digital Manufacturing Technologies. A range of qualitative and quantitative methods were used with industrial workers to measure key implementation factors at an individual and organisational level.
The UK's MOD's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) funded Human Factors (HF) Guidance for the Development and Testing of Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) project. Robotics and automated systems (RAS) are a growing component of military capability, and indeed everyday life and it is becoming critical to develop tools and techniques to help model, design, and verify such systems with human roles and interfaces as a central aspect. In this project, we reviewed existing relevant literature to assimilate reliable state-of-the-art (SoA) knowledge to provide guidance on practical and reliable methods that are available for human-centred analysis and design in the specific context of RAS.
TEACHING
MSc Applied Artificial Intelligence: Module leader and lecturer 'Ethical, Regulatory, and Social Aspects of AI' compulsory module. /courses/taught/applied-artificial-intelligence
MSc Robotics: Lecturer 'Psychology, Ethics and Standards' (PES) compulsory module. /courses/taught/robotics
