6,872 research outputs found
Selecting Metrics to Evaluate Human Supervisory Control Applications
The goal of this research is to develop a methodology to select supervisory control metrics. This
methodology is based on cost-benefit analyses and generic metric classes. In the context of this research,
a metric class is defined as the set of metrics that quantify a certain aspect or component of a system.
Generic metric classes are developed because metrics are mission-specific, but metric classes are
generalizable across different missions. Cost-benefit analyses are utilized because each metric set has
advantages, limitations, and costs, thus the added value of different sets for a given context can be
calculated to select the set that maximizes value and minimizes costs. This report summarizes the
findings of the first part of this research effort that has focused on developing a supervisory control metric
taxonomy that defines generic metric classes and categorizes existing metrics. Future research will focus
on applying cost benefit analysis methodologies to metric selection.
Five main metric classes have been identified that apply to supervisory control teams composed
of humans and autonomous platforms: mission effectiveness, autonomous platform behavior efficiency,
human behavior efficiency, human behavior precursors, and collaborative metrics. Mission effectiveness
measures how well the mission goals are achieved. Autonomous platform and human behavior efficiency
measure the actions and decisions made by the humans and the automation that compose the team.
Human behavior precursors measure human initial state, including certain attitudes and cognitive
constructs that can be the cause of and drive a given behavior. Collaborative metrics address three
different aspects of collaboration: collaboration between the human and the autonomous platform he is
controlling, collaboration among humans that compose the team, and autonomous collaboration among
platforms. These five metric classes have been populated with metrics and measuring techniques from
the existing literature.
Which specific metrics should be used to evaluate a system will depend on many factors, but as a
rule-of-thumb, we propose that at a minimum, one metric from each class should be used to provide a
multi-dimensional assessment of the human-automation team. To determine what the impact on our
research has been by not following such a principled approach, we evaluated recent large-scale
supervisory control experiments conducted in the MIT Humans and Automation Laboratory. The results
show that prior to adapting this metric classification approach, we were fairly consistent in measuring
mission effectiveness and human behavior through such metrics as reaction times and decision
accuracies. However, despite our supervisory control focus, we were remiss in gathering attention
allocation metrics and collaboration metrics, and we often gathered too many correlated metrics that were
redundant and wasteful. This meta-analysis of our experimental shortcomings reflect those in the general
research population in that we tended to gravitate to popular metrics that are relatively easy to gather,
without a clear understanding of exactly what aspect of the systems we were measuring and how the
various metrics informed an overall research question
Identifying Outcomes of Care from Medical Records to Improve Doctor-Patient Communication
Between appointments, healthcare providers have limited interaction with their
patients, but patients have similar patterns of care. Medications have common side
effects; injuries have an expected healing time; and so on. By modeling patient
interventions with outcomes, healthcare systems can equip providers with better
feedback. In this work, we present a pipeline for analyzing medical records according
to an ontology directed at allowing closed-loop feedback between medical encounters.
Working with medical data from multiple domains, we use a combination of data
processing, machine learning, and clinical expertise to extract knowledge from patient
records. While our current focus is on technique, the ultimate goal of this research is
to inform development of a system using these models to provide knowledge-driven
clinical decision-making
A Holistic Usability Framework For Distributed Simulation Systems
This dissertation develops a holistic usability framework for distributed simulation systems (DSSs). The framework is developed considering relevant research in human-computer interaction, computer science, technical writing, engineering, management, and psychology. The methodology used consists of three steps: (1) framework development, (2) surveys of users to validate and refine the framework, and to determine attribute weights, and (3) application of the framework to two real-world systems. The concept of a holistic usability framework for DSSs arose during a project to improve the usability of the Virtual Test Bed, a prototypical DSS, and the framework is partly a result of that project. In addition, DSSs at Ames Research Center were studied for additional insights. The framework has six dimensions: end user needs, end user interface(s), programming, installation, training, and documentation. The categories of participants in this study include managers, researchers, programmers, end users, trainers, and trainees. The first survey was used to obtain qualitative and quantitative data to validate and refine the framework. Attributes that failed the validation test were dropped from the framework. A second survey was used to obtain attribute weights. The refined framework was used to evaluate two existing DSSs, measuring their holistic usabilities. Ensuring that the needs of the variety of types of users who interact with the system during design, development, and use are met is important to launch a successful system. Adequate consideration of system usability along the several dimensions in the framework will not only ensure system success but also increase productivity, lower life cycle costs, and result in a more pleasurable working experience for people who work with the system
Systems Engineering Leading Indicators Guide, Version 2.0
The Systems Engineering Leading Indicators Guide editorial team is pleased to announce the release of Version 2.0. Version 2.0 supersedes Version 1.0, which was released in July 2007 and was the result of a project initiated by the Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI) at MIT in cooperation with:
the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE),
Practical Software and Systems Measurement (PSM), and
the Systems Engineering Advancement Research Initiative (SEAri) at MIT.
A leading indicator is a measure for evaluating the effectiveness of how a specific project activity is likely to affect system performance objectives. A leading indicator may be an individual measure or a collection of measures and associated analysis that is predictive of future systems engineering performance. Systems engineering performance itself could be an indicator of future project execution and system performance. Leading indicators aid leadership in delivering value to customers and end users and help identify interventions and actions to avoid rework and wasted effort.
Conventional measures provide status and historical information. Leading indicators use an approach that draws on trend information to allow for predictive analysis. By analyzing trends, predictions can be forecast on the outcomes of certain activities. Trends are analyzed for insight into both the entity being measured and potential impacts to other entities. This provides leaders with the data they need to make informed decisions and where necessary, take preventative or corrective action during the program in a proactive manner.
Version 2.0 guide adds five new leading indicators to the previous 13 for a new total of 18 indicators. The guide addresses feedback from users of the previous version of the guide, as well as lessons learned from implementation and industry workshops. The document format has been improved for usability, and several new appendices provide application information and techniques for determining correlations of indicators. Tailoring of the guide for effective use is encouraged.
Additional collaborating organizations involved in Version 2.0 include the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), US Department of Defense Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC), and National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Systems Engineering Division (SED). Many leading measurement and systems engineering experts from government, industry, and academia volunteered their time to work on this initiative
Decision Gate Process for Assessment of a Technology Development Portfolio
The NASA Dust Management Project (DMP) was established to provide technologies (to TRL 6 development level) required to address adverse effects of lunar dust to humans and to exploration systems and equipment, which will reduce life cycle cost and risk, and will increase the probability of sustainable and successful lunar missions. The technology portfolio of DMP consisted of different categories of technologies whose final product is either a technology solution in itself, or one that contributes toward a dust mitigation strategy for a particular application. A Decision Gate Process (DGP) was developed to assess and validate the achievement and priority of the dust mitigation technologies as the technologies progress through the development cycle. The DGP was part of continuous technology assessment and was a critical element of DMP risk management. At the core of the process were technology-specific criteria developed to measure the success of each DMP technology in attaining the technology readiness levels assigned to each decision gate. The DGP accounts for both categories of technologies and qualifies the technology progression from technology development tasks to application areas. The process provided opportunities to validate performance, as well as to identify non-performance in time to adjust resources and direction. This paper describes the overall philosophy of the DGP and the methodology for implementation for DMP, and describes the method for defining the technology evaluation criteria. The process is illustrated by example of an application to a specific DMP technology
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