ABSTRACT
Operator performance in monitoring complex automated control systems requires assistance. One method of providing this is through the use of display based performance aids. Emergent features and multilevel flow modelling (MFM) are two methods of display design which have been proposed for this purpose. In attempting to successfully use these methods, difficulties have been encountered due to the manner in which the required data is presented. One possible approach to tackling these difficulties would be to develop a display which combines either emergent features or MFM with a mimic of the process being monitored.
This paper documents the development of two such displays for a small pilot plant process. The results of usability tests carried out to determine whether there was a benefit to be gained in using the respective displays for fault detection and isolation tasks are reported. The combined mimic/emergent features displays did not provide a benefit to operator performance when monitoring the process. The number of continuous variables was insufficient in this case for the effective use of emergent feature displays. The results of the usability testing also indicate that while the mimic/MFM aid was useful, it did not necessarily provide a positive contribution to performance in fault detection and isolation. In order to effectively utilise this type of aid the issue of training needs to be addressed.
