Case Studies: Cross-Industry Applications of Cognitive Mobility Technologies

Cognitive mobility technologies make physical manifestations of perception and cognition available throughout a system or environment, providing accessible decision support, or automating decisions themselves. The potential for significant improvement—greater efficiency, safety, quality, reliability, resilience, and capacity—motivates exploration of cognitive mobility applications across industries and sectors, beyond the automotive and aviation domains dominating existing literature. Investigation focuses on the decision-making phase of the cognitive process, encompassing cognitive mobility that alters the interpretation of incoming information (via data fusion and the development of shared situational awareness), the assessment of associated risk (via augmented cognition and enhanced predictive capability), and the choice of action in response (via autonomous systems, automation in human–automation teams, and interoperability in human–machine collaboration).

Three sets of frameworks serve the systematic comparison of cognitive mobility applications: governance frameworks defining areas of activity, theory-complexity frameworks indicating types and maturity of technical solution, and assessment frameworks identifying the dimension and choice of quantitative indicator. Cognitive mobility technologies can influence decision-making in many ways, but the breadth and enabling nature of decision-support broadly referred to as “augmented cognition” can be particularly transformative. Augmented cognition may add or enhance components of the cognitive process (behavioral decision theory) or facilitate simulation-optimization of decision-making in real-time using a data-driven approach (dynamic risk assessment and methodologies inspired by control theory). Applications thus far demonstrate the feasibility of delivering improvements to the physical mobility offered by the system, the industry’s effectiveness, and the customer’s satisfaction.