Situation awareness

About: Situation awareness is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 7380 publications have been published within this topic receiving 108695 citations. The topic is also known as: SA & situational awareness.

Handbook of Intelligent Vehicles

Abstract: Traffic Statistics and Challenges.- Introduction of Relevant Vehicular Systems and Control Functions.- Overview of Intelligent Vehicle Systems and Approaches.- Sensing and Situational Awareness.- Sensory Requirements: External, Internal, Positioning and Condition Monitoring.- Driver Assistance.- Trip Planning, Navigation, and Trajectory Control.- Advanced Control and Decision Systems.- Safety and Comfort Systems.- Drowsy and Fatigue Driver Detection, Monitoring, and Warning.- Computer Vision Systems and Algorithms.- Vehicular Communications Systems.- Drive-By-Wire.- Fully Autonomous Driving.- A Look to the Future.

Human interaction with levels of automation and decision-aid fidelity in the supervisory control of multiple simulated unmanned air vehicles

Abstract: Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are vehicular robotic systems that are teleoperated by a geographically separated user. Advances in computing technology have enabled ROV operators to manage multiple ROVs by means of supervisory control techniques. The challenge of incorporating telepresence in any one vehicle is replaced by the need to keep the human "in the loop" of the activities of all vehicles. An evaluation was conducted to compare the effects of automation level and decision-aid fidelity on the number of simulated remotely operated vehicles that could be successfully controlled by a single operator during a target acquisition task. The specific ROVs instantiated for the study were unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). Levels of automation (LOAs) included manual control management-by-consent, and management-by-exception. Levels of decision-aid fidelity (100% correct and 95% correct) were achieved by intentionally injecting error into the decision-aiding capabilities of the simulation. Additionally, the number of UAVs to be controlled varied (one, two, and four vehicles). Twelve participants acted as UAV operators. A mixed-subject design was utilized (with decision-aid fidelity as the between-subjects factor), and participants were not informed of decision-aid fidelity prior to data collection. Dependent variables included mission efficiency, percentage correct detection of incorrect decision aids. workload and situation awareness ratings, and trust in automation ratings. Results indicate that an automation level incorporating management-by-consent had some clear performance advantages over the more autonomous (management-by-exception) and less autonomous (manual control) levels of automation. However, automation level interacted with the other factors for subjective measures of workload, situation awareness, and trust. Additionally, although a 3D perspective view of the mission scene was always available, it was used only during low-workload periods and did not appear to improve the operator's sense of presence. The implications for ROV interface design are discussed, and future research directions are proposed.

VisFlowConnect: netflow visualizations of link relationships for security situational awareness

Abstract: We present a visualization design to enhance the ability of an administrator to detect and investigate anomalous traffic between a local network and external domains. Central to the design is a parallel axes view which displays NetFlow records as links between two machines or domains while employing a variety of visual cues to assist the user. We describe several filtering options that can be employed to hide uninteresting or innocuous traffic such that the user can focus his or her attention on the more unusual network flows.This design is implemented in the form of VisFlowConnect, a prototype application which we used to study the effectiveness of our visualization approach. Using VisFlowConnect, we were able to discover a variety of interesting network traffic patterns. Some of these were harmless, normal behavior, but some were malicious attacks against machines on the network.

Automation Bias in Intelligent Time Critical Decision Support Systems

Abstract: Various levels of automation can be introduced by intelligent decision support systems, from fully automated, where the operator is completely left out of the decision process, to minimal levels of automation, where the automation only makes recommendations and the operator has the final say. For rigid tasks that require no flexibility in decision-making and with a low probability of system failure, higher levels of automation often provide the best solution. However, in time critical environments with many external and changing constraints such as air traffic control and military command and control operations, higher levels of automation are not advisable because of the risks and the complexity of both the system and the inability of the automated decision aid to be perfectly reliable. Human-in-the-loop designs, which employ automation for redundant, manual, and monotonous tasks and allow operators active participation, provide not only safety benefits, but also allow a human operator and a system to respond more flexibly to uncertain and unexpected events. However, there can be measurable costs to human performance when automation is used, such as loss of situational awareness, complacency, skill degradation, and automation bias. This paper will discuss the influence of automation bias in intelligent decision support systems, particularly those in aviation domains. Automation bias occurs in decision-making because humans have a tendency to disregard or not search for contradictory information in light of a computer-generated solution that is accepted as correct and can be exacerbated in time critical domains. Automated decision aids are designed to reduce human error but actually can cause new errors in the operation of a system if not designed with human cognitive limitations in mind.

Situation awareness in emergency medical dispatch

Abstract: Situation awareness, and how systems can be designed to support it appropriately, have been a focus of study in dynamic, safety critical contexts such as aviation. The work reported here extends the study of situation awareness into the domain of emergency medical dispatch (EMD). The study was conducted in one of the largest ambulance services in the world. In this study, we encountered development and exploitation of situation awareness, particularly among the more senior EMD operators called allocators. In this paper we describe the notion of a 'mental picture' as an outcome of situation awareness, how an awareness of the situation is developed and maintained, the cues allocators attend to, and the difficulties they face in doing so. One of the key characteristics of ambulance control is that relatively routine behaviour is periodically interspersed with incidents that demand much higher levels of attention, but that the routine work must still be completed; operators exhibit contrasting levels of situation awareness for the different kinds of incidents. Our findings on situation awareness are related to those of others, particularly Endsley and Wickens. The observations and interviews enable us to propose high-level requirements for systems to support appropriate situation awareness, to enable EMD staff to complete their work effectively.