Control Automation

The automation of controls has enabled the development and implementation of many systems that would be impossible to operate with manual controls alone. Modern jet aircraft, air traffic control systems, and nuclear power plants are only a few of such systems. There have also been tremendous gains in productivity and precision with the use of systems employing sensors and automated controls such as used with computer controlled manufacturing equipment and computer controlled industrial processes. The problem has been that with some highly complex systems, the human-to-system interfaces have been more "automation-centered" than "human-centered." Also, in the system design process often the functions chosen for automation were those easiest to automate instead of those most appropriate to automate.*

Some industries such as the nuclear power industry are now faced with the need to upgrade components which will in turn require changes to human-to-system interfaces. While this is an opportunity to improve interfaces to reduce error and workload and increase productivity, it presents a challenge in designing interfaces that will not create negative transfer effects and the potential need to modify/update aspects of the user's mental model of how the system works.

*National Academy of Sciences, Workload Transition: Implications for Individual and Team Performance (1993).