Adaptable task modelling and its application to job design for safety and productivity in process control

  • Authors:
  • Tom Kontogiannis

  • Affiliations:
  • Technical University of Crete, University Campus, Chania GR, Crete, Greece

  • Venue:
  • EACE '05 Proceedings of the 2005 annual conference on European association of cognitive ergonomics
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Changes of task demands due to unforeseen events and technological changes can cause variations in job design such as job procedures and task allocation. Failure to adapt to job design variations can lead to human errors that may have severe consequences for system safety. Existing techniques for task modelling cannot adequately model how tasks can be adapted to changing work conditions and system demands. The work described here presents a simulation tool that takes into account the context of work (e.g., competing activities, errors and suspended tasks) and adapts the task model to this context according to a cognitive user model. Performance shaping factors (e.g., workload, fatigue and mental-tracking load) are calculated at any point in time to identify performance bottlenecks and evaluate the consequence of human errors on system safety and productivity. The simulation tool is based on Coloured Petri Nets so that humans and technical systems are described with a common modelling language. Limitations and further developments of the tool are also discussed.