ABSTRACT
The underlying rationale and the major objective of this chapter is to demonstrate the critical effects of human and organizational factors and to also highlight the role of their interactions with automation (and automated devices) in the safe operation of complex, large-scale technological systems. This is done in the following sections by a brief analysis of well-known accidents at such systems, an overview of the most important problems and shortcomings of various automated and autonomous systems, and a case study to demonstrate the critical role of human organizational factors in the safety of an advanced control room of an oil and gas pipeline system.
