A tentative model for analysis of human-automation interaction in control rooms

Paper in proceeding, 2012

This paper describes a tentative model to analyze work in joint human-automation systems. The tentative model is used to represent known human-automation related problems in a unified way. The out-of-the-loop problem is used as an example in the paper. The present paper has three main objectives; (I) present a tentative model that can characterize work in joint humanautomation systems, (II) show how the tentative model can be used to describe examples of human-automation related problems (III) discuss how the tentative model can be used as a viable tool to understand human-automation interaction. The paper reports an evaluation made by using empirical data from an interview study on turbine automation operation in the nuclear power domain where human-automation related problems were identified. The evaluations show that the tentative model provide useful explanations to how specific automation related problems emerge. These explanations could potentially be generalized into human-automation interface design guidance. Further, it is discussed how the tentative model can be developed into a viable tool for industrial use where limited resources are available for extensive analysis of humanautomation interaction.