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Abstract
Since its inception, just after the Second World War, ergonomics research has paid special attention to the issues surrounding human control of systems. Command and Control environments continue to represent a challenging domain for Ergonomics research. We take a broad view of Command and Control research, to include C2 (Command and Control), C3 (Command, Control and Communication), and C4 (Command, Control, Communication and Computers) as well as human supervisory control paradigms. This special issue of ERGONOMICS aims to present state-of-the-art research into models of team performance, evaluation of novel interaction technologies, case studies, methodologies and theoretical review papers. We are pleased to present papers that detail research on these topics in domains as diverse as the emergency services (e.g., police, fire, and ambulance), civilian applications (e.g., air traffic control, rail networks, and nuclear power) and military applications (e.g., land, sea and air) of command and control. While the domains of application are very diverse, many of the challenges they face share interesting similarities.
... A significant effort has been devoted to exploring alarm design problems. Topics covered include alarm-handling response times (Stanton and Baber 2006), direction of attention (Gilson et al. 2001;Woods 1995), modelling the operators' diagnostic procedures (Stanton and Baber 2008;Woods 1995), information load (Woods et al. 2002) and assessing how informative and meaningful alarms are (Seagull and Sanderson 2001). ...
... Based on Stanton and Baber (2006), alarm handling consists of four key activities: notification, acceptance, diagnosis and clearance. Applied to the railway infrastructure context, railway track workers, train drivers and, increasingly, remote sensing of trackside assets and environment are responsible for identifying faults and informing control room operators ("notification"). ...
... The results have partially confirmed the hypotheses of the study. The results for alarm clearance, incorporating the later stages of alarm processing (Stanton and Baber 2006;Dadashi et al. 2016), broadly follow the hypotheses. More information leads to slower response time, and more errors when presented with Level 3 information (predictive information). ...
One of the recurring questions in designing dynamic control environments is whether providing more information leads to better operational decisions. The idea of having every piece of information is increasingly tempting (and in safety critical domains often mandatory) but has become a potential obstacle for designers and operators. The present research study examined this challenge of appropriate information design and usability within a railway control setting. A laboratory study was conducted to investigate the presentation of different levels of information (taken from data processing framework, Dadashi et al., 2014) and the association with, and potential prediction of, the performance of a human operator when completing a cognitively demanding problem solving scenario within railways. Results indicated that presenting users only with information corresponding to their cognitive task, and in the absence of other, non task-relevant information, improves the performance of their problem solving/alarm handling. Knowing the key features of interest to various agents (machine or human) and using the data processing framework to guide the optimal level of information required by each of these agents could potentially lead to safer and more usable designs.
... Although there have so far been only limited studies on network SA using social network analysis (SNA), the potential of SNA has been identified as a tool to study the network situation awareness by analyzing patterns of communication or content flow between actors within the system (Foltz and Martin 2008;Houghton et al. 2006;Sorensen and Stanton 2011;Stanton et al. 2006;Weil et al. 2008). Through SNA metrics such as 'centrality' or 'closeness', positions of individuals in a communication network can be analyzed. ...
... Communication can also be seen as an important indicator of team behavior that affects the development of team SA (Salas et al. 1995). From a macrocognitive approach, team SA can be measured by observing the coordinated response of the team to a situational change, organization SA through network representations in terms of semantics and flow analysis, and system SA through the analysis of propositional networks Stanton et al. 2006;Weil et al. 2008). ...
This study takes upon a group cognition perspective and investigates the cognition of railway traffic operations, in particular railway traffic and passenger traffic control. A table-top simulation environment is used to conduct the study, in which its design principles are elaborated upon. Network cognition is operationalized through communication content and flow and studied through social network analysis (SNA). SNA centrality metrics, such as degree, closeness and betweenness, are assessed in these networks. As part of the study, two cases are compared where operational procedures for disruption mitigation are varied. The dependent variables are the different types of communication network structures that are conceptualized for communication flow and semantic network structures for communication content. Although the quantitative comparisons between the two operational procedures regarding their communication flow and semantic networks showed no significant differences, this study provides a methodology to compare different conditions.
... All of these decisions, i.e. sending a stop message, switching the points and changing the signals, require the signaller to read the track ahead of the train in order to decide if there is an oncoming train and if either of the trains can be stopped in time. Good situation awareness by the signallers, through information communicated via the displays and/or interaction with other persons, is essential to help them reach the right decisions (Stanton et al. 2006). Sending a stop message would require the assessment of the stopping distance and the trajectory of the train(s). ...
... It is recognised that not all alarms are dealt with in exactly the same way, as the activities are context dependent. After an alarm has been triggered, it may be observed and accepted by the signaller, then some analysis of the likely trigger conditions is undertaken (which will be highly dependent upon the situation awareness – Stanton et al. 2006). Depending on the outcome of this analysis, one of five pathways could be followed, as indicated in Figure 3 ...
The purpose of the paper was to address the timeliness of the signaller's intervention in the Ladbroke Grove rail incident in the UK, as well as to consider the utility of human performance time modelling more generally. Human performance response time modelling is a critical area for Human Factors and Ergonomics research. This research applied two approaches to the same problem to see if they arrived at the same conclusion. The first modelling approach used the alarm initiated activity (AIA) model. This approach is useful for indicating general response times in emergency events, but it cannot comment in detail on any specific case. The second modelling approach employed a multi-modal critical path analysis (CPA) technique. The advantage of the latter approach is that it can be used to model a specific incident on the basis of the known factors from the accident inquiry. The results show that the AIA model produced an estimated response time of 17 s, whereas the CPA model produced an estimated response time of 19 s. This compares with the actual response time of the signaller of 18 s. The response time data from both approaches are concordant and suggest that the signaller's response time in the Ladbroke Grove rail accident was reasonable. This research has application to the modelling of human responses to emergency events in all domains. Rather than the forensic reconstruction approach used in this paper, the models could be used in a predictive manner to anticipate how long human operators of safety-critical systems might take to respond in emergency scenarios.
... Our final example is in the area of socio-technical systems. Typically, these are safetycritical or command and control type systemsexamples include process and power control, air traffic control and emergency dispatch (Stanton & Baber, 2006). Many of the underlying principles are also applicable to single user, or single artefact systems, but this category of sociotechnical system offers unique challenges in terms of the complexity of the underlying domains that the operators are trying to control, and risks associated with error. ...
... The effectiveness of the CECC in Taiwan illustrates that provisionary command centers can enact quick, coordinated response across government agencies [13], [14] required for resilience against infectious diseases such as COVID-19 [15]- [19]. Thus, recent publications have provided operational descriptions of the CECC for others to consider for developing a response to COVID-19 [12], [20]- [22]. ...
... From a methodological point of view, there are numerous methods and approaches that have been proposed and implemented, ranging from earlier approaches, such as usability engineering and usercentred design (UCD), to UX design of digital solutions (e.g. Dekker and Nyce 2004;Harris and Stanton 2010;Nielsen 2005;Stanton and Baber 2006). However, the HFE community still needs more innovative methods to address the challenges noted by the IEA report (Dul et al. 2012). ...
This paper first reviews current ergonomics design approaches in delivering digital solutions to achieve a unified experience from interaction and business process design perspectives. Then, it analyses the opportunities that new technologies may bring in for enhancing current ergonomics design approaches from integration and intelligence design perspectives. To address the challenges in today’s ergonomics practices in delivering digital solutions, an interaction, process, integration and intelligence (IPII) design approach is proposed. A case study is presented that implemented the IPII approach. The quantitative data gathered from the case study demonstrates that the IPII approach has achieved significant advantages in reaching the goal of a unified experience and operational benefits for delivering digital solutions. The IPII approach also demonstrates improvements compared to today’s ergonomics design approaches, such as user-centred design, for digital solutions. Finally, the paper highlights the contributions of the IPII approach for future ergonomics practices in delivering digital solutions.
Practitioner Summary: In addition to the interaction design for the UI of digital solutions, as is the case in current typical ergonomics practice, the IPII adds three additional design components: process, integration, and intelligence design. The case study demonstrates the advantages of the IPII, providing an enhanced approach for designing digital solutions.
... From a methodological point of view, there are numerous methods and approaches that have been proposed and implemented, ranging from earlier approaches, such as usability engineering and usercentred design (UCD), to UX design of digital solutions (e.g. Dekker and Nyce 2004;Harris and Stanton 2010;Nielsen 2005;Stanton and Baber 2006). However, the HFE community still needs more innovative methods to address the challenges noted by the IEA report (Dul et al. 2012). ...
This paper first reviews current ergonomics design approaches in delivering digital solutions to achieve a unified experience from interaction and business process design perspectives. Then, it analyses the opportunities that new technologies may bring in for enhancing current ergonomics design approaches from integration and intelligence design perspectives. To address the challenges in today’s ergonomics practices in delivering digital solutions, an interaction, process, integration and intelligence (IPII) design approach is proposed. A case study is presented that implemented the IPII approach. The quantitative data gathered from the case study demonstrates that the IPII approach has achieved significant advantages in reaching the goal of a unified experience and operational benefits for delivering digital solutions. The IPII approach also demonstrates improvements compared to today’s ergonomics design approaches, such as user-centred design, for digital solutions. Finally, the paper highlights the contributions of the IPII approach for future ergonomics practices in delivering digital solutions.
... EAST is a method developed specifically for modelling command team. Since its conception, the framework has been applied in many domains, including naval warfare [31]. EAST models complex collaborative systems through a network approach. ...
The Command Team Experimental Test-Bed (ComTET) is a body of work examining the functionality of submarine command teams with an emphasis upon future ways of working. 10 teams of 8 participants (80 participants in total) received extensive training at one of the operator stations in the submarine control room simulator (e.g. sonar or periscope operator). The teams then completed 3 different scenarios under higher and lower work demand conditions. The Work Load (WL) and Situation Awareness (SA) of the command team was assessed using a variety of standardized subjective rating scales (e.g. NASA TLX), physiological measures (e.g. ECG), in play cognitive capacity assessments (e.g. duel task paradigm) and SA assessments. The communication(s) between all team members were recorded allowing the use of the Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork (EAST) method to examine performance. Preliminary results indicate that the WL of operators in a submarine command team varied as a result of scenario type and scenario demand. The initial results are discussed alongside future analysis plans.
... It is announced by sounding an audible alarm, updating any related symbols on an alarm banner as well as live indications on the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) which is responsible for remotely controlling the electrical supplies through remote monitoring equipments and visual displays (Dadashi et al, 2009). Previous research in alarm handling has studied response times (Stanton, 2006), direction of attention (Woods, 1995;Gilson, et al., 2001), modelling operators' diagnostic procedures (Woods, 1995;Stanton and Baber, 1997), information load (Woods, et al., 2002); and informativeness of alarms (Seagull, et al., 2000). The dynamic nature of alarm handling emphasises the need to understand the cognitive and collaborative work involved. ...
Cognitive Work Analysis is an approach to understand work in complex socio-technical environments. Despite the promising advantages of framing cognitive tasks within this model most of the published research is limited to first stages of CWA and developed an abstract understanding rather than tangible design recommendations. In this paper alarm handling in rail electrical control room was chosen as the case study which conducts CWA in order to understand its potential and limitations and to determine the challenges in doing so.
... EAST is a method developed specifically for modelling command team. Since its conception, the framework has been applied in many domains, including naval warfare [31]. EAST models complex collaborative systems through a network approach. ...
The command room system has developed across a century of submarine operations and so reflects a high state of evolution, but that does not mean that the system cannot be improved upon. Technological advances have resulted in the retrospective fitting of upgrades which may not have maximized the potential improvements offered. Future challenges for command teams in almost every domain include increasing amounts of data coupled with more automated systems and reduced manning. To optimise functionality new physical layouts, team structures, allocation of system functions, communication media, interfaces, and work design will be required. The aim of the ComTET (Command Team Experimental Test-Bed) project is to examine how a submarine command team currently functions, with specific regard to how information flows around the socio-technical system. This information shall be used to evaluate limitations in the current system, promote ideas concerning where reduced crewing might be possible and highlight how extra data might best be integrated into the system. Phase 1 of ComTET involved the creation of a submarine command room with high physical and task fidelity. The ComTET team has designed and built a submarine command room simulator that is a representation of the currently operational ASTUTE submarine. The simulator is comprised of 10 workstations each with two stacked monitors, various input devices and a headset linked to a multi-channel communications network. The simulation engine is a custom build of Dangerous Waters software, a naval warfare simulation game. The software features many operator-controllable units from on board a submarine, allowing the completion of individual submariner command team tasks simultaneously to fulfil global (team) mission objectives. The ComTET laboratory has a range of devices for recording the personal communications of each operator, in addition to video recordings of each operator and ambient voice/video recordings. This will facilitate the construction of social, task and information networks to examine the command room from a socio-technical perspective. The laboratory is also equipped with physiological recording devices so that the workload of operatives can be examined using psycho-physiological approaches alongside commonly used standardised measures of workload, situation awareness and cognitive function. The data collected shall be based around three scenarios which capture the primary operations routinely completed by submariners in high and low work load conditions.
... It is announced by sounding an audible alarm, updating any related symbols on an alarm banner as well as live indications on the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) which is responsible for remotely controlling the electrical supplies through remote monitoring equipments and visual displays (Dadashi et al, 2009). Previous research in alarm handling has studied response times (Stanton, 2006), direction of attention (Woods, 1995;Gilson, et al., 2001), modelling operators' diagnostic procedures (Woods, 1995;Stanton and Baber, 1997), information load (Woods, et al., 2002); and informativeness of alarms (Seagull, et al., 2000). The dynamic nature of alarm handling emphasises the need to understand the cognitive and collaborative work involved. ...
Cognitive Work Analysis is an approach to understand work in complex socio-technical environments. Despite the promising advantages of framing cognitive tasks within this model most of the published research is limited to first stages of CWA and developed an abstract understanding rather than tangible design recommendations. In this paper alarm handling in rail electrical control room was chosen as the case study which conducts CWA in order to understand its potential and limitations and to determine the challenges in doing so.
... Much progress has been made towards increasing HFE influences on product design by HFE professionals in addition to HCI colleagues, such as usability specialists and interaction designers (Dekker and Nyce 2004;Harris and Stanton 2010;Nielsen 2005;Stanton and Baber 2006). For instance, HFE professionals are now involved in product development earlier than they used to be; they gather user needs, define personas and drive interaction design, instead of merely running ad hoc UI usability testing (Cooper 2004). ...
This paper first discusses the major inefficiencies faced in current human factors and ergonomics (HFE) approaches: (1) delivering an optimal end-to-end user experience (UX) to users of a solution across its solution lifecycle stages; (2) strategically influencing the product business and technology capability roadmaps from a UX perspective and (3) proactively identifying new market opportunities and influencing the platform architecture capabilities on which the UX of end products relies. In response to these challenges, three case studies are presented to demonstrate how enhanced ergonomics design approaches have effectively addressed the challenges faced in current HFE approaches. Then, the enhanced ergonomics design approaches are conceptualised by a user-experience ecosystem (UXE) framework, from a UX ecosystem perspective. Finally, evidence supporting the UXE, the advantage and the formalised process for executing UXE and methodological considerations are discussed. Practitioner Summary: This paper presents enhanced ergonomics approaches to product design via three case studies to effectively address current HFE challenges by leveraging a systematic end-to-end UX approach, UX roadmaps and emerging UX associated with prioritised user needs and usages. Thus, HFE professionals can be more strategic, creative and influential.
... 18 The dynamic nature of alarm handling emphasises the need to understand the cognitive and collaborative work involved. [19][20][21] For example, ECR alarm handling involves collecting information from signal boxes as well as from the maintenance team on track, and constantly monitoring the SCADA system. A complete and qualitative understanding of work in the real-life setting is required to include the complexities of these systems. ...
Renewals and especially enhancements of rail signalling and control systems are increasingly including a strong programme of human factors integration. One contribution to the human factors work that is required is work analysis – the understanding of what tasks and functions exist in current work systems, the artefacts (controls and displays used) and the strategies employed by skilled operators. One increasingly common approach to such work systems analysis is cognitive work analysis (CWA), used to develop understanding of a work domain and tasks in a structured fashion and as a basis for new design recommendations. The purpose of this paper is to explain, for an engineering and systems developer audience, the basis for and use of CWA. This is done in the context of rail electrical control rooms and especially the use made of various information display elements including alarms.
... Recent research is pointing to the increased ability of organizations to respond effectively using a more creative and flexible decision making structure. This appears to be because automation and rigor more associated with command and control decision making may actually hinder adaptive capacity by reducing situation awareness Endsley et al. 2003 and ultimately performance; systems must be more flexible or they risk becoming redundant Stanton and Baber 2006. In addition to offering organizations a specific definition of resilience, this study focused on the development of a suite of tools that could provide organizations with practical means to first assess and then improve their overall resilience. ...
Resilient organizations contribute significantly to resilient communities. However, the task of building more resilient organizations is complicated by an inability to translate the concept of resilience into tangible working constructs for organizations. In addition, resilience is often considered to be a crisis or emergency management issue. The link between creating resilient day-to-day operations and having a resilient crisis response and recovery is typically not well understood by organizations. Resilience for organizations is found to have three principal attributes. Situation awareness, management of keystone vulnerabilities, and adaptive capacity. A facilitated process is introduced that assists organizations to enhance their performance in relation to these attributes. This process is called resilience management and was developed and tested with 10 case study organizations selected specifically to represent a wide range of industry sectors, business types, and sizes in New Zealand. Some of the preliminary resilience issues to arise from this study are also briefly discussed.
... Grootjen et al. (2006b) defined six main problem areas for naval ships: (1) Increasing complexity; (2) Changing of information type and volume; (3) Increasing system autonomy causing 'out of the loop' operator problems; (4) Task integration from different domains; (5) Decreasing personnel and training budgets; (6) Increasing legislative constraints. Human-centered design methods are often proposed to establish for the human a central and distinct position from other aspects of the system (Stanton and Baber, 2006; Neerincx, 2003). In human-centered design of a new system, different configurations are tested and evaluated. ...
In process control, the ongoing automation and application of new technologies caused a radical change in the position of the operator. Due to this change, increasing manning constraints and the pressure to maximize the operational capability in the Navy, naval operators need personalized and dynamic support which can differ in time: the system should accommodate the user with the right task support at the right time. This paper presents the design and user evaluation of an interface with task allocation support. This kind of support enables the operator to redirect the alarm (system or operator initiated). Evaluation with 34 navy students shows positive results on performance and general usability. Performance increases because the most important problems are solved faster. However, performance on a less important task decreases and can be interpreted as 'reallocation costs'. Results on questionnaires show an increasing insecurity on the predictability of the system.
... Grootjen et al. (2006c) defined six main problem areas for naval ships: (1) Increasing complexity; (2) Changing of information type and volume; (3) Increasing system autonomy causing 'out of the loop' operator problems; (4) Task integration from different domains; (5) Decreasing personnel and training budgets; (6) Increasing legislative constraints. Human-centered design methods are often proposed to establish for the human a central and distinct position from other aspects of the system ( Stanton and Baber, 2006;Neerincx, 2003). In human-centered design of a new system, different configurations are tested and evaluated. ...
Earlier research showed the importance and usefulness of the Cognitive Task Load (CTL) model and method in the design and evaluation of new systems in process control. The CTL model describes task load using three variables: time occupied, task set switching and level of information processing. After validation of the model, an interface was developed that supports specifically on those three load factors. To enhance operator support, current research shows the design and evaluation of different levels of automation for this interface. User evaluation shows very positive results on the support system in general and findings are in line with earlier research. However, results show no effects between levels of automation on performance and mental effort. Possible explanations can be found in the experimental and interface design. Modifications to the interface, to achieve higher situational awareness, trust and better results on performance and effort, are discussed. This paper concludes with a short overview how critical areas of effort, performance and CTL can be determined. Together with real time CTL information these areas can be used to adapt support for optimal human machine operation by switching between levels of automation.
... Grootjen et al. [1] defined six main problem areas: (1) Increasing complexity; (2) Changing of information type and volume; (3) Increasing system autonomy causing 'out of the loop' operator problems; (4) Task integration from different domains; (5) Decreasing personnel and training budgets; (6) Increasing legislative constraints. Human-centered design methods are often proposed to establish for the human a central and distinct position from other aspects of the system [2,3]. In the design of a new system, different configurations are tested and evaluated. ...
Application of more and more automation in process control shifts the operator's task from manual to supervisory control. Increasing system autonomy, complexity and information fluctuations make it extremely difficult to develop static support concepts that cover all critical situations after implementing the system. Therefore, support systems in dynamic domains should be dynamic as the domain itself. This paper elaborates on the state information needed from the operator to generate effective mitigation strategies. We describe implications of a real world experiment onboard three frigates of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Although new techniques allow us to measure, combine and gain insight in physiological, subjective and task information, many practical issues need to be solved.
... The system will ultimately process both dynamic and static data in order to prompt response recommendations to transport managers so decision making can be facilitated, response times reduced and information better shared. Initial research has indicated that flexible systems should be designed in order to avoid redundancy (Stanton and Baber, 2006) therefore performance limitation (Endsley et al., 2003). Finally, the proposed game simulation has shown potentials to be used as a training tool due to positive participants' assessments regarding the complexity of scenario and simulation of emergencies as well its low cost to be developed and implemented. ...
This paper proposes a novel method to analyse decision-making during extreme events. The method is based on Decision-making Theory and aims at understanding how emergency managers make decisions during disasters. A data collection framework and an analysis method were conceptualized to capture participant’s behaviour, perception and understanding throughout a game-board simulation exercise, which emulates an earthquake disaster scenario affecting transport systems. The method evaluates the participant’s actions in order to identify decision-making patterns, strengths and weaknesses. A set of case studies has shown two typical patterns, namely: a) Support immediate rescue; b) Support lifelines recovery. Good decision-making practices regard to objective-oriented decision making, understanding of conflicting priorities and appropriate resource management. Weaknesses are associated with comprehending relationships between community/environment and projecting future scenarios. Overall, the case study’s results demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed method to analyse decision making during disasters.
... Controlling of military operations have similar implications than planning and tasking, but with a more pertinent focus on situation awareness. Situation awareness is related to the discipline of ergonomics [17], and requires a closed loop of observation, perception of the situation, and control of the situation. Since the information sources and effectors available for control of a situation may be distributed, a commander often has to rely on indirect information and indirect control. ...
2008 European Simulation Interoperability Workshop (08E-SIW-015), Edinburgh, Scotland, 16-19 June 2008 The South African National Defence Force is in the process of establishing a Joint Command and Control Test Facility at a National Research Institute. The goal with this facility is to provide an integrated environment for Joint Command and Control doctrine development. This requires support for planning, development, experimentation and preparation for concept evaluation, demonstrator implementation, computer-aided field exercises and interoperability testing. A service-orientated architectural approach is followed to provide all the necessary services, mechanisms and functionalities. Since simulations and simulators form part of such a facility, interoperability standards are very important, as well as the underlying data model. The high-level requirements for these, as well as the architecture, are presented in this paper for the test facility
... Automation will enter every domain imaginable (and some not yet thought of), such as the private motor vehicle, household and leisure devices (Sauer and Ruttinger 2007). Cacciabue notes that traditionally automation has only been placed in domains with highly skilled and trained personnel that have been specially selected for the work, such as aircraft pilots and engineers in central control rooms (Stanton and Baber 2006). The big difference in the future is that these technologies will be placed in the hands of ordinary people and Cacciabue argues that this puts special demands on the design. ...
Alarm management is a key component of the successful operation of a prognostic or health-monitoring technology. Although alarms can alert the operator to critical information, false alarms and alarm flooding can cause major difficulties for successfully diagnosing and acting upon infrastructure faults. Human factors approaches seek to design more-effective alarm systems through a deep understanding of the contextual factors that influence alarm response, including strategies and heuristics used by operators. This paper presents an extensive analysis of alarm-handling activity in the setting of an Electrical Control Room on the rail network. The analysis is based on contextual observation, and the application of a time-stamped observation checklist. Functions, performance requirements, and general operating conditions that influence alarm handling are presented, delineating the typical operational constraints that need to be considered in the design and deployment of asset-based alarm systems. The analysis of specific alarm-handling incidents reveals the use of specific strategies that may bias operator performance. Implications for the design of health-monitoring systems are discussed.
To the average driver, the concept of automation in driving infers that they can become completely 'hands and feet free'. This is a common misconception, however, one that has been shown through the application of Network Analysis to new Cruise Assist technologies that may feature on our roads by 2020. Through the adoption of a Systems Theoretic approach, this paper introduces the concept of driver-initiated automation which reflects the role of the driver in highly automated driving systems. Using a combination of traditional task analysis and the application of quantitative network metrics, this agent-based modelling paper shows how the role of the driver remains an integral part of the driving system implicating the need for designers to ensure they are provided with the tools necessary to remain actively in-the-loop despite giving increasing opportunities to delegate their control to the automated subsystems. Practitioner Summary: This paper describes and analyses a driver-initiated command and control system of automation using representations afforded by task and social networks to understand how drivers remain actively involved in the task. A network analysis of different driver commands suggests that such a strategy does maintain the driver in the control loop.
Tomorrows military systems will require novel methods for assessing Soldier performance and situational awareness (SA) in mobile operations involving mixed-initiative systems. Although new methods may augment Soldier assessments, they may also reduce Soldier performance as a function of demand on workload, requiring concurrent performance of mission and assessment tasks. The present paper describes a unique approach that supports assessment in environments approximating the operational context within which future systems will be deployed. A complex distributed system was required to emulate the operational environment. Separate computational and visualization systems provided an environment representative of the military operational context, including a 3D urban environment with dynamic human entities. Semi-autonomous driving was achieved with a simulated autonomous mobility system and SA was assessed through digital reports. A military crew station mounted on a 6-DOF motion simulator was used to create the physical environment. Cognitive state evaluation was enabled using physiological monitoring. Analyses indicated individual differences in temporal and accuracy components when identifying key features of potential threats; i.e., comparing Soldiers and insurgents with non-insurgent civilians. The assessment approach provided a natural, operationally-relevant means of assessing needs of future secure mobility systems and detecting key factors affecting Soldier-system performance as foci for future development.
Rail signalling is typical of a complex control task where situation awareness (SA) has been thought to play a significant role. Taking into account the main theoretical positions, and through reviewing cognitive accounts of signalling, it is apparent that SA is a useful construct in describing and understanding rail signalling at both a cognitive and a system level. Development and maintenance of SA is complex, requiring much expertise and knowledge on the part of the signaller to extract and synthesise relevant information from the environment. The display and other artefacts and actors in the system also play a major role in the construction and maintenance of SA. This suggests that it is not sufficient to consider SA purely as an individual's product of knowledge. Instead, the active use of SA, such as in design, must reflect the distributed nature of the signalling environment, as found in other command and control-type domains. Rail signalling has not yet been subjected to in-depth analysis in terms of SA and has characteristics that make it distinct from other areas where SA has been analysed (e.g. air traffic control). This paper reviews the validity of SA and associated concepts to this safety-critical function, as well as highlighting some of the characteristics of SA (multiple tasks, display-based and distributed SA, role of local knowledge and expertise) that must be considered to use the construct in an operational context.
This study investigates the effect of vehicle motion on performance, usability and workload for a touch screen in-vehicle Battle Management System (BMS). Participants performed a series of battle management tasks while a vehicle was driven over sealed (characteristic of 'normal' vehicle motion) and unsealed (characteristic of 'high' vehicle motion) roads. The results indicate that unsealed road conditions impair the performance of information input tasks (tasks that require the user to enter information, e.g. text entry) but not information extraction tasks (tasks that require the user to retrieve information from the system, e.g. reading coordinates). Participants rated workload as higher and the system as less usable on the unsealed road. In closing, the implications for in-vehicle touch screen design and use in both military and civilian driving contexts are discussed. Practitioner Summary: The effect of motion on interacting with in-vehicle touch screen devices remains largely unexplored. This study examines the effect of different levels of vehicle motion on the use of a BMS. Using the system under off-road conditions had a detrimental impact on workload, performance and usability.
Unlabelled:
This article presents the rationale behind an important enhancement to a socio-technical model of organisations and teams derived from military research. It combines this with empirical results which take advantage of these enhancements. In Part 1, a new theoretical legacy for the model is developed based on Ergonomics theories and insights. This allows team communications data to be plotted into the model and for it to demonstrate discriminate validity between alternative team structures. Part 2 presents multinational data from the Experimental Laboratory for Investigating Collaboration, Information-sharing, and Trust (ELICIT) community. It was surprising to see that teams in both traditional hierarchical command and control and networked 'peer-to-peer' organisations operate in broadly the same area of the model, a region occupied by networks of communication exhibiting 'small world' properties. Small world networks may be of considerable importance for the Ergonomics analysis of team organisation and performance.
Practitioner summary:
This article is themed around macro and systems Ergonomics, and examines the effects of command and control structures. Despite some differences in behaviour and measures of agility, when given the freedom to do so, participants organised themselves into a small world network. This network type has important and interesting implications for the Ergonomics design of teams and organisations.
This paper will introduce the human factors command and control test bed developed at Brunel University. The system was developed
to facilitate experiments into command and control within a military context. The purpose of the system is to support experimentation,
it is not intended to represent a product that could be used in the field by the MoD. The test bed developed represents a
controlled environment allowing the manipulation of individual variables. The manipulation of these variables allows researchers
to address fundamental human factors questions emerging from the transition form an analogue paper based planning process
to a digital network enabled process. Areas of particular interest for this system include collaborative working, distributed
command centres, the flow of information as well as changes to the command hierarchy. The system consists of a number of commercial
off the shelf products synthesised by a bespoke planning application.
Resilient Organisations Research Report 2007/01 The research described in this report looks at ten New Zealand organisations from a range of industry sectors, sizes, localities and types to discover common issues that foster or create barriers to increased resilience. A process for Resilience Management is described for both evaluating and improving an organisation’s resilience.
From the Publisher:Human factors, also known as human engineering or human factors engineering, is the application of behavioral and biological sciences to the design of machines and human-machine systems. Automation refers to the mechanization and integration of the sensing of environmental variables, data processing and decision making and mechanical action. This book deals with all the issues involved in human-automation systems from design to control and performance of both humans and machines.
This paper reports an investigation into the relationship between the location of team members, the medium for team interaction and the task undertaken. The issue of task type has not been adequately addressed in the research literature, and it is unclear what role specific task types play in the interaction of teams, communication media and physical proximity. As this is the first study of its type to investigate these variables together, the investigation exploratory in nature. From the literature, it was difficult to derive specific research hypotheses, as much of the evidence is equivocal. In summary, the results show that there are: • no statistically significant effects for location of the groups; • more interactions in the telephone-mediated groups; • differences in the task completion times regardless of media or location; • more ideas generated in the additive task by the computer-mediated group; • greater levels of satisfaction were reported with the discretionary task These findings may help in the consideration of physical proximity and communication media when designing team work.
A method for identifying and measuring team skills, specifying team training objectives and the objective assessment of team performance is described. First, a theoretical model of team performance is outlined and then a version of Hierarchical Task Analysis specially adapted to analysing team tasks is described. The two are then combined into an event-related measurement scheme, which provides a set of objective criteria by which key team skills can be assessed. The method is illustrated by an example from a basic Anti-Submarine Warfare training exercise which forms part of the Principal Warfare Officer's course at the Royal Naval School of Maritime Operations. The potential of the method is discussed, including the opportunities it may provide for the standardization of team performance assessment and in the use of new technology in the partial automation of shore-based and ship-board team training.
Cognitive factors in the analysis, design and assessment of command and control systems Handbook of Cognitive Task Design
- J Smalley
Smalley, J. (2003) Cognitive factors in the analysis, design and assessment of
command and control systems. In: E. Hollnagel (ed) Handbook of Cognitive Task
Design. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (223-253).
- Smalley J.