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.

An application of semantic web technologies to situation awareness

Abstract: Situation awareness involves the identification of relationships among objects participating in an evolving situation. This problem in general is intractable and thus requires additional constraints and guidance defined by the user if there is to be any hope of creating practical situation awareness systems. This paper describes a Situation Awareness Assistant (SAWA) based on Semantic Web technologies that facilitates the development of user-defined domain knowledge in the form of formal ontologies and rule sets and then permits the application of the domain knowledge to the monitoring of relevant relations as they occur in a situations. SAWA includes tools for developing ontologies in OWL and rules in SWRL and provides runtime components for collecting event data, storing and querying the data, monitoring relevant relations and viewing the results through a graphical user interface. An application of SAWA to a scenario from the domain of supply logistics is presented along with a discussion of the challenges encountered in using SWRL for this task.

Tower Controllers' Assessment of the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) Concept

Abstract: Airports are often a capacity-limiting constraint for the rest of the National Airspace System (NAS). A recent effort investigated methods to improve surface operations by supplying optimized scheduling and sequencing advisories for the Ground and Local controllers working at Air Traffic Control Towers. The tool is collectively known as the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA). A series of high fidelity human-in-the-loop simulations was conducted to assess scheduling performance and their effects on the human operators. This paper documents the impact of the advisories on controllers' workload, situation awareness (SA), and usability. Fifty-six high fidelity human-in- the-loop simulations were conducted using a matrix of traffic level (normal and high) and advisory display formats (data tag and timeline). Results revealed that the high traffic level increased perceived workload for both Ground and Local controllers. Local and Ground controllers also reported a decrease in subjective SA in the high traffic condition. There was no significant effect of traffic level or advisory usage on the objective SA measure, although their interaction was statistically significant. For Ground, objective SA decreased in the high traffic but not during the normal traffic level. Ground controllers showed a preference for using the timeline format by reducing scans for information and aiding with future planning. Feedback also revealed that future work should focus on harmonization between the optimization model and the human planning model, thus providing a transparent planning and execution strategy. Keywords-component; surface scheduler; optimizer; airport simulator; human factors; workload; situation awareness; usability

Seeking harmony in shore-based unmanned ship handling – From the perspective of human factors, what is the difference we need to focus on from being onboard to onshore?

Abstract: Previous studies have discovered that the tacit but indispensable “ship sense” from seafarers is intensively involved in creating and maintaining “harmony” to assure the safety. The concept of “harmony” reveals the continuous balanced effect by tuning the ship to the dynamic environment under different situations that ship handlers strive for. While the notions of ship sense and harmony is originally created for onboard ship maneuvering, this paper extends it to the domain of shore-based control centers for unmanned ship handling from the perspective of human factors. With the loss of direct ship-sense, the harmony is also lost. This paper analyzes the challenges from having the operator onboard to onshore during ship maneuvering and explores the changing aspects of human factors we need to focus on, in order to facilitate shore-based ship-handlers to regain the harmony. The EU project Maritime Unmanned Ship though Intelligence in Networks (MUNIN) provides the context to conduct the focus group interview of participants with seagoing experience. The shifted human factors in shore-based unmanned ship handling are discussed. The results highlight several differential aspects in human factors that should be considered, such as situation awareness. It provides keys to design shore-based control center for remote monitoring and control in accordance with user-centered design principles.

Task Performance Metrics in Human-Robot Interaction: Taking a Systems Approach

Abstract: : Performance metrics for human-robot interaction in urban search and rescue (USAR) are just beginning to appear in the literature as researchers try to establish a way of describing and evaluating human-robot task performance in this high-risk, time-critical domain. In this paper we propose that human-robot interaction metrics should focus on the work system as a whole, examining the robot's effects on human task performance within the over-arching context of human work. Moreover, these effects should be examined within the context of real-time human performance in field settings, rather than in simulation or experimental environments. This position stems from a basic assumption that we are interested in measuring human-robot interaction in USAR because we want to see how it affects and aids human performance in this time and safety-critical environment. We present a methodology for collecting data in the field and subsequent analysis using the Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue Coding System (RASAR-CS), specifically developed for this domain. The RASAR-CS allows us to capture (1) basic verbal and non verbal communications describing the task and how it is accomplished (what is being said, by who to whom); (2) situation awareness information requirements (from the robot and other sources) - for developing and maintaining situation awareness, including the ability to capture changing requirements over time; (3) team processes enabling coordinated activities, efficient communication and strategy planning; and (4) human-robot interaction in terms of: robot-operator initiated robot activities, and physical interaction with robot.