Participants needed – autonomous agricultural machine study
Participants are needed in a study exploring comprehension to the supervisor of an autonomous agricultural machine during emergencies.
Purpose of study
You are invited to participate in a study that will be carried out in a lab to determine which medium would be suitable to proffer comprehension to the supervisor of an autonomous agricultural machine during emergencies. The study should take no longer than one hour to complete.
Role of participants
You will be asked to do the following;
- Conduct an internet search task to answer specific agronomic questions (on a screen) and then move focus to another computer monitor (where you will be informed about the statutory information of a simulated autonomous sprayer using different stimuli levels of various warning methods- visual, auditory and tactile) once you hear a notification sound.
- You are to select the right choice of condition based on perceived warning from a list of possible conditions to acknowledge comprehension.
- You will be presented a trial questionnaire and an end-of-experiment questionnaire to rank each warning mode(s) and give your personal experience during the entire experiment respectively.
Inclusion/exclusion criteria
Potential participants must be willing to submit to auditory, visual and tactile screening with or without farming experience (specifically with the knowledge of spraying of fertilizer and herbicides) or tractor driving experience and also should be in the age bracket of 18-35 years old. Participants who are less than 18 years old or more than 35 years old would not be eligible. Also, participants with impaired vision and hearing would be ineligible.
Contact information
Interested participants can email Anita (Principal Investigator): ezeagbaa@myumanitoba.ca, Phone: 431-335-9730 or
Dr. Danny Mann (Advisor): danny.mann@umanitoba.ca for more information.
This research has been approved by the Research Ethics Board at the University of Manitoba, Fort Garry Campus. If you have any concerns or complaints about this project, you may contact any of the above-named persons or the Human Ethics Coordinator at 204-474-7122, humanethics@umanitoba.ca..
Participants will be given a $25 UM Bookstore gift card as compensation for taking part in this study.