Denis Miglianico

Display requirements for an interactive rail scheduling display

This work, a collaboration between Alstom Transport and the MIT Humans and Automation Laboratory (HAL), is focused on the development of an interactive in-cab scheduling interface for train operators. Currently, operators rely on a combination of paper schedules, paper speed charts, and rote memorization to meet the many demands of train operation. The separation of this information over multiple sources shifts driver attention away from the windscreen and may result in increased workload levels and safety compromises. A Hybrid Cognitive Task Analysis (hCTA), which derives the information requirements necessary to meet mission goals directly from operational tasks, was conducted to generate cognitive requirements for the desired scheduling display. The resulting seventeen requirements were used to guide the development of a new scheduling display, which is presented.

From Task Analysis to Innovation

An important part of activities of a tramway driver is to keep watching on the environment that includes pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles or cars. Based on tramway driver’s activities review, a preliminary analysis has been done to see how the new eco-driving task could affect existing tasks. The impact on the workload and the risk of errors was investigated. The method and experience presented explain how experiments were conducted in a simulator to assess the risk and to provide different physical means of information transmission based on various levels of abstraction. Different measures deliver assessment of effectiveness of driving. Based on these measures, new solutions are integrated and the results of head-up display implementation are presented.

Heuristic Models Applied to the Assessment and Redesign of Human Machine Interfaces Embedded in Light Rail Vehicles

Abstract This paper describes the utilization of a heuristic tool for analysing the intrinsic complexity and usability of an HMI (Human-Machine Interface) of the on board information system embedded into the light rail CITADIS (vehicle manufactured by Alstom Transport). The usefulness of this tool is assessing early designs of this kind of equipment, prior to its implementation in a functional platform, or even in the rolling stock.