A human factors approach to analysing military command and control

This paper applies the Event Analysis for Systemic Teamwork (EAST) method to an example of military command and control. EAST offers a way to describe system level 'emergent properties' that arise from the complex interactions of system components (human and technical). These are described using an integrated methods approach and modelled using Task, Social and Knowledge networks. The current article is divided into three parts: a brief description of the military command and control context, a brief description of the EAST method, and a more in depth presentation of the analysis outcomes. Numerous findings emerge from the application of the method. These findings are compared with similar analyses undertaken in civilian domains, where Network Enabled Capability (NEC) is already in place. The emergent properties of the military scenario relate to the degree of system reconfigurability, systems level Situational Awareness (SA), team-working and the role of mediating technology. It is argued that the EAST method can be used to offer several interesting perspectives on designing and specifying NEC capability in military context

Fratricide: defective decision making

Motivation – to explore the applicability of a Human Factors methodology for the investigation of fratricide. Research approach – The EAST methodology was used to analyse an incident of fratricide and its ability to explore the Famous Five of Fratricide (F3) model was investigated. Findings/Design – the analysis revealed that EAST was able to provide explicit discussion of the Famous Five of Fratricide (F3) models five causal factors of communication, cooperation, coordination, schemata and situation awareness. Research limitations/Implications – the research explored a single case study and as such is couched at the initial phases of investigation. Originality/Value – the analysis provides a contribution to the knowledge urrounding fratricide both with respect to the novel application of the EAST methodology to an incident of fratricide, and also the causal factors identified by EAST within the fratricide incident. Take away message – the EAST methodology provides an innovative way of exploring causality in incidents of fratricide<br/

Distributed situation awareness in dynamic systems: Theoretical development and application of an ergonomics methodology

The purpose of this paper is to propose foundations for a theory of situation awareness based on the analysis of interactions between agents (i.e., both human and non-human) in subsystems. This approach may help promote a better understanding of technology-mediated interaction in systems, as well as helping in the formulation of hypotheses and predictions concerning distributed situation awareness. It is proposed that agents within a system each hold their own situation awareness which may be very different from (although compatible with) other agents. It is argued that we should not always hope for, or indeed want, sharing of this awareness, as different system agents have different purposes. This view marks situation awareness as a 1 dynamic and collaborative process that binds agents together on tasks on a moment-by-moment basis. Implications of this viewpoint for development of a new theory of, and accompanying methodology for, distributed situation awareness are offered

Measuring situation awareness in complex systems: Comparison of measures study

Situation Awareness (SA) is a distinct critical commodity for teams working in complex industrial systems and its measurement is a key provision in system, procedural and training design efforts. This article describes a study that was undertaken in order to compare three different SA measures (a freeze probe recall approach, a post trial subjective rating approach and a critical incident interview technique) when used to assess participant SA during a military planning task. The results indicate that only the freeze probe recall method produced a statistically significant correlation with performance on the planning task and also that there was no significant correlation between the three methods, which suggests that they were effectively measuring different things during the trials. In conclusion, the findings, whilst raising doubts over the validity of post trial subjective rating and interview-based approaches, offer validation evidence for the use of freeze probe recall approaches to measure SA. The findings are subsequently discussed with regard to their implications for the future measurement of SA in complex collaborative systems

Phase space shifts in command structures in networked systems

This paper presents the rationale behind an important enhancement to the NATO SAS-050 approach space, combined with empirical results which take advantage of these enhancements. In Part 1 a new theoretical legacy for the NATO model is presented. This legacy inspires a number of developments which allow live data to be plotted into it, and we demonstrate that the model is well able to discriminate between alternative C2 structures. Part 2 illustrates this feature with multinational data from the ELICIT community. It is surprising to see that teams in both C2 and Edge conditions operate in broadly the same area of the phase space cube. The structure of the pre-ordained ELICIT ‘classic C2’ hierarchy and the deterministic nature of the shared task are put forward as explanations for this, and as future enhancements to the ELICIT paradigm

Framework for Dynamic Evaluation of Muscle Fatigue in Manual Handling Work

Muscle fatigue is defined as the point at which the muscle is no longer able to sustain the required force or work output level. The overexertion of muscle force and muscle fatigue can induce acute pain and chronic pain in human body. When muscle fatigue is accumulated, the functional disability can be resulted as musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). There are several posture exposure analysis methods useful for rating the MSD risks, but they are mainly based on static postures. Even in some fatigue evaluation methods, muscle fatigue evaluation is only available for static postures, but not suitable for dynamic working process. Meanwhile, some existing muscle fatigue models based on physiological models cannot be easily used in industrial ergonomic evaluations. The external dynamic load is definitely the most important factor resulting muscle fatigue, thus we propose a new fatigue model under a framework for evaluating fatigue in dynamic working processes. Under this framework, virtual reality system is taken to generate virtual working environment, which can be interacted with the work with haptic interfaces and optical motion capture system. The motion information and load information are collected and further processed to evaluate the overall work load of the worker based on dynamic muscle fatigue models and other work evaluation criterions and to give new information to characterize the penibility of the task in design process.Comment: International Conference On Industrial Technology, Chengdu : Chine (2008

Combining social network analysis and the NATO Approach Space to define agility. Topic 2: networks and networking

This paper takes the NATO SAS-050 Approach Space, a widely accepted model of command and control, and gives each of its primary axes a quantitative measure using social network analysis. This means that the actual point in the approach space adopted by real-life command and control organizations can be plotted along with the way in which that point varies over time and function. Part 1 of the paper presents the rationale behind this innovation and how it was subject to verification using theoretical data. Part 2 shows how the enhanced approach space was put to use in the context of a large scale military command post exercise. Agility is represented by the number of distinct areas in the approach space that the organization was able to occupy and there was a marked disparity between where the organization thought it should be and where it actually was, furthermore, agility varied across function. The humans in this particular scenario bestowed upon the organization the levels of agility that were observed, thus the findings are properly considered from a socio-technical perspective

EVALUATING THE USE OF THE COGNITIVE WALK- THROUGH USABILITY

This paper addresses the evaluation of the Cognitive-Walk-Through (CWT) usability method by the application of an experiment with two groups: the control group and the experimental group. While one group carried out an assessment task without the use of a method, the other group used the CWT method. Both groups were intentionally assembled only with designers with the purpose to evaluate the ability of the proposed method: the possibility of the expert to place him or herself as the user. Although both groups came up with similar answers, meaningful differences were noticed. The evaluation of the group that used the method was deeper and more sensitive to the condition of the user. Furthermore, the method proved itself as an important guide in the search for answers focused on the demanded task

Developing a tool to assess trainees during crisis management training for major risks

International audienceOften based on simulation exercises, crisis management training helps prepare decision-makers to manage crises better. However, this training has definite limits in terms of trainee assessment and the feed-back given during the debriefing phase. This paper presents a method for better organising the assessment of trainees involved in a real time crisis management training exercises and for giving them feedback during the debriefing phase. The approach presented is based on creating a typology of training objectives in order to or-ganise the assessment. The assessment includes expected outcomes techniques as well as the human and or-ganisational factors that can be observed within a group. The assessment tools developed were then experi-mented within crisis management exercises completed with trainees. Beyond the basic results, these tools helped redefine the basic roles played by observers and trainers during training exercises