Stephen Deutsch

Work-centered support systems: a human-centered approach to intelligent system design

The work-centered support system approach to human-centered computing focuses on analyzing and supporting the multiple facets of work. The WCSS for global weather management developed to support weather forecasting and monitoring in an airlift service organization, exemplifies this approach. A hallmark of human-centered computing (HCC) is its focus on domain practitioners and their field of practice. Human-centered design depends on a deep analysis of a fields cognitive and collaborative demands and how people work individually, in groups, and in organizations to meet those demands. The objective is to leverage what we know about human cognitive and collaborative processes to create systems that optimize the affordances (direct perception of meanings) and effectivities (knowledge-driven actions) for humans. The WCSS paradigm offers an approach for incorporating software agent technology in a manner that helps the user keep the head in the work and reduces the possibility that software agent states or actions surprise the user.

The Operator-Model Architecture and its Psychological Framework

Abstract The operators of complex equipment are frequently members of a team who must manage their control functions across numerous interruptions. They succeed, in part, because of their multi-tasking skills. The OMAR System includes a suite of representation languages as the basis for constructing models of these human multitasking behaviors. Prior to the development of the computational languages, a psychological framework was developed that attempts to identify key elements of the computational foundation for these behaviors. The psychological framework and the design of the representation languages for developing models of human multi-tasking behaviors are described.

Human Performance Models of Pilot Behavior

Five modeling teams from industry and academia were chosen by the NASA Aviation Safety and Security Program to develop human performance models (HPM) of pilots performing taxi operations and runway instrument approaches with and without advanced displays. One representative from each team will serve as a panelist to discuss their teams model architecture, augmentations and advancements to HPMs, and aviation-safety related lessons learned. Panelists will discuss how modeling results are influenced by a models architecture and structure, the role of the external environment, specific modeling advances and future directions and challenges for human performance modeling in aviation.

EXAMINING NEW FLIGHT DECK TECHNOLOGY USING HUMAN PERFORMANCE MODELING

Aircraft flight deck synthetic vision systems (SVS) always provide a “clear day” view and hence have the potential to improve safety in commercial aviation. Approach, landing, and taxi operations will most readily profit from the SVS capabilities. A part-task simulation study provided data on pilot performance using a baseline and an SVS-equipped flight deck. One effect of adding the separate SVS to the flight deck was that pilot scan patterns changed significantly—more time was devoted to the attitude displays and less to the navigation display. Concern over the change in well-established scan patterns lead to the suggestion that the SVS, an attitude display, be combined with the primary flight display as a single Enhanced-SVS attitude display rather than augment it as a separate display. A human performance model study was used to reproduce the results of the part-task study and then establish that the Enhanced-SVS attitude instrument would restore the original pilot scan pattern.

Using Software Agents in a Work Centered Support System for Weather Forecasting and Monitoring

There has been a growing interest in developing system architectures and human-software agent interaction paradigms that deploy software agents in the service of effective support for human task performance. This paper describes an agent-based system for a weather forecasting and monitoring application, called Work Centered Support System for Global Weather Management (WCSS-GWM), that takes this approach. WCSS-GWM exemplifies and extends Cognitive Engineering (CE) principles for effecting human-software agent interaction and Work Centered Support System (WCSS) concepts. Two fundamental CE principles are observability and directability. Users need to be able to ‘see’ what the software agents are doing and be able to re-direct the software agents as task demands change. The WCSS brings an additional, complementary perspective, emphasizing the need to support the multiple facets involved in individual cognitive and collaborative work (decision-making, product development, collaboration, and work management). The WCSS-GWM agent-based architecture is explicitly designed with these objectives in mind.

Hybrid Team Training Testbed for Awacs Aircraft Controllers

Simulation-based team training has become an important component of preparation and readiness for a variety of military teams. However, despite extensive resource allocation to simulation-based training environments, and to computer generated forces that can act in those environments, there is relatively little research on how synthetic entities can best be designed and used to achieve team training objectives. In this paper, we outline the development of a research program that seeks to define principles of effective team training with synthetic entities. We describe our domain of application (Air Force AWACS Weapons Directors and the pilots they control), team training objectives, the components and capabilities of the simulation, and our plan for using the simulation to evaluate the effectiveness of hybrid team training. Ultimately, this work will result in a series of principles of effective team training with agents that can facilitate the development of hybrid training environments.

Omar Human Performance Modeling in a Decision Support Experiment

Human performance models that simulate the multiple task behaviors of the operators of complex systems are now being developed that can, with appropriate discretion, be used to complement the human players in real-world-like simulation environments. We have developed and used human performance models for an air traffic control simulation that was the basis for a decision support system experiment with human subjects. The experiment is briefly described and the roles played by the human performance models for air traffic controllers and flight crews are discussed. The theory that forms the foundation for the development of the human performance models, and the Operator Model Architecture developed to create the models are presented. Future directions for research based, in part, on the experiment results are outlined.

Envisioning Evolvable Work-Centered Support Systems: Empowering Users to Adapt Their Systems to Changing World Demands

Work-Centered Support Systems (WCSS) provide visualizations that reveal domain constraints and affordances based on software agent technology to support cognitive and collaborative work. Here we argue for a need to incorporate facilities that enable users to adapt these systems to the changing requirements of work—–evolvable work-centered support systems. We recently developed a WCSS for weather forecasting and monitoring in an airlift organization that is currently used in their operations center. As part of the development process we conducted field observations both prior and subsequent to system introduction. A striking finding was the constant changes that operations personnel faced (changes in goals and priorities; changes in scale of operations; changes in team roles and structure; changes in information sources and systems). We describe the changes in workplace demands that we observed and the modifications we needed to make to the WCSS in response. Our findings are presented as a case study to illustrate the challenges confronted in designing a WCSS to support a constantly changing environment. For todays fielded systems, making changes that are responsive to users changing requirements in a timely manner is seldom possible.