Control Room Interface Research Articles

Industry Monitoring Robot using Arduino Uno with Matlab Interface

In industries, measuring the parameters of machines is still a tedious process which is carried out by some human personnel. This paper mainly focuses on the remedial measures made to reduce human interaction with machines by using Industrial monitoring robot. This robot is hanged over the ropes to measure the parameters of machines in aerial mode. During its travel, the robot collects the parameters from the machines and transmits to control room using ZIG-BEE protocol. The control room interface with the robot is designed using MATLAB GUI model. MATLAB GUI interface shows the parameter readings from the robot and plotted in graph. The robot mainly observes temperature, smoke, toxic gases, Light intensity, defect in manufacturing machines, security purposes using cameras. Any abnormal change in the parameters can be viewed in the graph and remedial measures can be made immediately without any delay, this prevents machine damage to a greater extent. This robot is also used to indicate hazardous conditions like fire, leakage of pipes etc. to the control room using buzzers.

Evaluating Control Room Interface Design and Automation in Petrochemical Operations

Console operators are responsible for much of the safety and productivity of petrochemical facilities through continuous monitoring and mitigation of potential issues. These critical activities happen through complex human machine interfaces (HMIs), and recent studies suggest that the current interfaces in use are not supportive enough to inform console operators of potential issues. The current research sought to identify current industry practices in interface displays and describe their limitations based on human factors research and models. The research team visited three refineries with different distributed control systems (DCS) implementations to evaluate the current state of HMIs. During each visit, researchers evaluated the current HMIs and interviewed console operators about the usability of the current interfaces. No system reviewed assisted the controller’s decision-making process. Instead, the systems only provided the console operator data that they are expected to integrate to make a decision. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current state of HMIs found during the petrochemical facility visits and outline the limitations of current HMIs by comparing the console operator activities with the levels of automation that the HMIs provide.

A Human Factors-Based Assessment Framework for Evaluating Performance in Control Room Interface Design

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS Evaluating the effects of control room interface design on operator performance is crucial to maintaining productivity and safety. Current regulations in the petrochemical industry encourage the inclusion of human factors principles in designing displays and the environment but provide little guidance on evaluation. The framework presented in this article can be used to evaluate petrochemical control room interface designs under a variety of conditions, including workload and experience levels. Applications of this framework include the evaluation of novel interface designs to determine which alternatives result in the highest performance and reasonable perceived workload levels. This framework could also be used to evaluate the effects of other performance-shaping factors, such as fatigue.TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: The petrochemical industry has a need to improve the design of control room interfaces, but regulations on how to evaluate designs are sparse. Purpose: This study describes the development and initial evaluation of a human factors-based framework for evaluating performance using control room interfaces under varying user experience levels, display designs, and workload levels. The framework considers three steps of human behavior in systems: sensing/perception, information processing, and physical/verbal responses. Direct performance measures of speed and accuracy and measures of perceived workload (NASA task load index and subjective workload assessment technique) assess these three steps, and situation awareness (situation awareness global assessment technique) assesses sensing/perception and information processing. Methods: To provide initial validation of the framework, students and professional operators (two experience levels) used current standard interface designs and poor interface designs at three workload levels. The participants completed three 30-minute scenarios and responded to various alarms that signaled failures during each scenario, which were created using a commercially available refinery simulator. Results: In general, the framework was sensitive to differences in interface design, workload level, and experience. Future research can determine sensitivity to other control room parameters and may include additional metrics, such as secondary task workload measures and eye tracking, depending on the goals of the evaluation. Conclusion: This research demonstrates the feasibility of applying human factors tools to performance evaluation of commercially available petrochemical control room interface designs.

Operator Monitoring during Normal Operations: Vigilance or Problem-Solving?

Monitoring during emergencies in dynamic environments is widely recognized to be an active, selective attention, process. In contrast monitoring during normal operations is often thought to more closely resemble a vigilance task. This paper describes a field study of power plant operator monitor during normal operations. We observed and interviewed 27 operators at two different plants for a total of over 200 hours. Despite differences in control room technology, we found that in both cases operators devised active strategies to remove or reduce meaningless changes from the interface, create information different from that intended by the designers, and make important information more salient. These findings were integrated into a model of operator monitoring, that emphasizes operators' use of strategies for knowledge-driven monitoring and proactive adaptation of the control room interface. The model is equally applicable for normal and emergency operations and underscores the commonality in cognitive demands in both environments.

Human Factors Research on Power Plant Simulators

Full scope simulations of nuclear power plant control rooms play a major role in operator training programs. They also provide an environment for the conduct of a broad range of Human Factors research pertinent to nuclear power plant operations. A computer-based evaluation system has been developed for objectively measuring certain elements of an operator's performance on a power plant simulator. The Performance Measurement System (PMS), developed for the Electric Power Research Institute, was designed to help an instructor in his total evaluation of an operator trainee by providing measurements and documentation of certain essential elements of operator performance. Many measurements of operator performance on the simulator can be applied to research on the operator - control room interface. The use of PMS as a research tool offers unique opportunities to address many Human Factors questions in nuclear control rooms.