Monitoring Behavior and Supervisory Control

This book includes all papers presented at the International Symposium on Monitoring Behavior and Supervisory Control held at Berchtesgaden, Federal Republic of Germany, March 8-12, 1976. The Symposium was sponsored by the Scientific Affairs Division of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Brussels, and the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn. We believe the book constitutes an important and timely status report on monitoring behavior and supervisory control by human operators of complex man-machine systems in which the computer is sharing key functions with the man. These systems include aircraft and other vehicles, nuclear and more conventional power plants, and processes for the manu­ facture of chemicals, petroleum, and discrete parts. By "monitoring" we mean the systematic observation by a human operator of mul tiple sources of information, e. g. , ranging from integrated display consoles to disparate "live situations". The monitor's purpose is to determine whether operations are normal and proceeding as desired, and to diagnose difficulties in the case of abnormality or undesirable outcomes. By "supervisory control" we mean control by a human operator of a computer which, at a lower level, is controlling a dynamic system. In such systems, the computer-control normally operates continuously or at high data rates in loops closed through electromechanical sensors and motors. By contrast, the human operator normally signals or reprograms the computer intermittently or at a much slower pace. The human operator handles the higher level tasks and determines the goals of the overall system.