4,811 research outputs found
Human activity modeling and Barabasi's queueing systems
It has been shown by A.-L. Barabasi that the priority based scheduling rules
in single stage queuing systems (QS) generates fat tail behavior for the tasks
waiting time distributions (WTD). Such fat tails are due to the waiting times
of very low priority tasks which stay unserved almost forever as the task
priority indices (PI) are "frozen in time" (i.e. a task priority is assigned
once for all to each incoming task). Relaxing the "frozen in time" assumption,
this paper studies the new dynamic behavior expected when the priority of each
incoming tasks is time-dependent (i.e. "aging mechanisms" are allowed). For two
class of models, namely 1) a population type model with an age structure and 2)
a QS with deadlines assigned to the incoming tasks which is operated under the
"earliest-deadline-first" policy, we are able to analytically extract some
relevant characteristics of the the tasks waiting time distribution. As the
aging mechanism ultimately assign high priority to any long waiting tasks, fat
tails in the WTD cannot find their origin in the scheduling rule alone thus
showing a fundamental difference between the present and the A.-L. Barabasi's
class of models.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure
Optimization of polling systems with Bernoulli schedules
Optimization;Polling Systems;Queueing Theory;operations research
Pilot interaction with automated airborne decision making systems
An investigation was made of interaction between a human pilot and automated on-board decision making systems. Research was initiated on the topic of pilot problem solving in automated and semi-automated flight management systems and attempts were made to develop a model of human decision making in a multi-task situation. A study was made of allocation of responsibility between human and computer, and discussed were various pilot performance parameters with varying degrees of automation. Optimal allocation of responsibility between human and computer was considered and some theoretical results found in the literature were presented. The pilot as a problem solver was discussed. Finally the design of displays, controls, procedures, and computer aids for problem solving tasks in automated and semi-automated systems was considered
- …