A Human-Automation Role Strategy for Resource-Interface Conflicts

A reduction in crew size in military vehicles or command centers often results in the redistribution of tasks among the remaining personnel. In many cases the crew reduction strategy results in operator multi-tasking that creates high workload. This occurs when an operator is performing specific actions required by one task but is also continuing to complete situation awareness and/or communication tasks. A human-automation role strategy ensures that the crew members can adequately perform all tasks assigned within reasonable workload limits by suggesting opportunities for automation to assist the operators. The strategy is developed by evaluating workload under different conditions to identify task combinations that contribute to high workload. It specifically addresses the workload induced by channel conflict. Channel conflict occurs when the resources and interfaces that the operator uses to complete the concurrent tasks conflict, i.e. trying to push buttons on different interfaces at the same time. This paper provides an approach to determine the resource - interface pairs that contribute to high workload of multi-tasking operators. It aligns them with the different stages of information processing. and based on the stage that the conflict occurs, it recommends a different role for the operator to assume and suggests an opportunity for automation. The resulting strategy identifies the human-automation roles required for the reduced crew to complete all tasking within reasonable workload limits.