Light Water Sustainability Program: Optimizing Information Automation Using a New Method Based on System-Theoretic Process Analysis

This report describes the interim progress for research supporting the design and optimization of information automation systems for nuclear power plants. Much of the domestic nuclear fleet is currently focused on modernizing technologies and processes, including transitioning toward digitalization in the control room and elsewhere throughout the plant, along with a greater use of automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, and other emerging technologies. While there are significant opportunities to apply these technologies toward greater plant safety, efficiency, and overall cost-effectiveness, optimizing their design and avoiding potential safety and performance risks depends on ensuring that human-performance-related organizational and technical design issues are identified and addressed. This report describes modeling tools and techniques, based on sociotechnical system theory, to support these design goals and their application in the current research effort. The report is intended for senior nuclear energy stakeholders, including regulators, corporate management, and senior plant management. We have developed and employed a method to design an optimized information automation ecosystem (IAE) based on the systems-theoretic constructs underlying sociotechnical systems theory in general and the Systems-Theoretic Accident Modeling and Processes (STAMP) approach in particular. We argue that an IAE can be modeled as an interactive information control system whose behavior can be understood in terms of dynamic control and feedback relationships amongst the system’s technical and organizational components. Up to this point, we have employed a Causal Analysis based on STAMP (CAST) technique to examine a performance- and safety-related incident at an industry partner’s plant that involved the unintentional activation of an emergency diesel generator. This analysis provided insight into the behavior of the plant’s current information control structure within the context of a specific, significant event. Our ongoing analysis is focused on identifying near-term process improvements and longer-term design requirements for an optimized IAE system. The latter analyses will employ a second STAMP-derived technique, System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA). STPA is a useful modeling tool for generating and analyzing actual or potential information control structures. Finally, we have begun modeling plantwide organizational relationships and processes. Organizational system modeling will supplement our CAST and STPA findings and provide a basis for mapping out a plantwide information control architecture. CAST analysis findings indicate an important underlying contributor to the incident under investigation, and a significant risk to information automation system performance, was perceived schedule pressure, which exposed weaknesses in interdepartmental coordination between and within responsible plant organizations and challenged the resilience of established plant processes, until a human caused the initiating event. These findings are discussed in terms of their risk to overall system performance and their implications for information automation system resilience and brittleness. We present two preliminary information automation models. The proactive issue resolution model is a test case of an information automation concept with significant near-term potential for application and subsequent reduction in significant plant events. The IAE model is a more general representation of a broader, plantwide information automation system. From our results, we have generated a set of preliminary system-level requirements and safety constraints. These requirements will be further developed over the remainder of our project in collaboration with nuclear industry subject matter experts and specialists in the technical systems under consideration. Additionally, we will continue to pursue the system analyses initiated in the first part of our effort, with a particular emphasis on STPA as the main tool to identify weak or weakening ontrol structures that affect the resilience of organizations and programs. Our intent is to broaden the scope of the analysis from an individual use case to a related set of use cases (e.g., maintenance tasks, compliance tasks) with similar human-system performance challenges. This will enable more generalized findings to refine the Proactive Issue Resolution and IAE models, as well as their system-level requirements and safety constraints. We will use organizational system modeling analyses to supplement STPA findings and model development. We conclude the report with a set of summary recommendations and an initial draft list of system-level requirements and safety constraints for optimized information automation systems

Considering the Importance of Individual Differences in Human Factors Research: No Longer Simply Confounding Noise

Too often, individual differences are treated as a nuisance variable, and are either controlled in the study or covaried out in the statistical analyses of the results. Yet, to truly generate sound and useful human factors guidelines to facilitate the interaction between humans and systems, we need to fully understand how individual differences in aptitudes interact with the varying circumstances found in today’s complex technological environments. As the title of this session indicates, this panel is organized specifically to highlight the importance of individual differences in human factors research. To address this issue, this panel draws upon the knowledge and experience of a representative sample of professionals from both industry and academia that have investigated the role of individual differences across a variety of domains.As such, the panelists’ remarks cover a broad range of topics. The discussion begins with a general argument of why recognizing individual differences in human capabilities and limitations is necessary. Then, the discussion turns to demonstrating the key role of personality factors in human-machine interaction. From the industry perspective, we are presented with a proposed model with which to reduce musculoskeletal injuries followed by suggestions on how to cope with individual differences in system test and evaluation. The next area addressed is how vigilance decrement differs as a function of the operator’s innate attention skills, a critical issue in light of the current emphasis on airport security. And, finally the last panelist draws attention to the need for ‘adaptive’ systems, where the focus is not merely on human-centered, but rather on person-speczjk design. The goal of this panel session will be to attempt to bridge the diverse remarks made by the panelists and identify a common overarching theme for investigating individual differences in human factors research

Integrating cognitive analyses into a large scale system design process. Paper presented at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 45th Annual Meeting

This paper describes an approach for integrating cognitive analysis in the early stages of design of a new, large scale system-- a next generation US Navy Surface combatant. Influencing complex system designs in ways cognizant of human-system integration principles requires work products that are timely and tightly coupled to other elements of the system design process. Analyses were conducted, and recommendations made in parallel with, and as inputs to design decisions regarding system purposes, functionality, automation capabilities and staffing levels. We could not wait for design decisions to be made before proceeding or require other design groups to wait for our outputs. Thus, it was necessary to select and adapt cognitive work analysis methods to fit the demands of a time pressured design situation. A functional abstraction hierarchy model, and a series of cross-linked matrices were developed to provide a principled mapping between system function decompositions produced by system engineering teams, cognitive tasks, information needs, automation requirements, and concepts for displays. Cross-referencing the matrices supported design traceability standpoint and the integration of cognitive analyses with functional analyses being performed by other design teams. Results fed into design decisions with respect to level of automation, manning requirements and initial display prototypes. Providing an illustration of the processes and methods we applied is valuable because it describes and formalizes the relationship between concepts used in cognitive analyses and those used in systems engineering; it demonstrates the generalizability of cognitive engineering methods in a set of circumstances where few well documented examples exist; and it provides guidance for other human factors practitioners who may find themselves in similar circumstances

Session Participants

draft copy of this article was sent to all members of the Roundtable for their input regarding any revisions, changes, additions, and editing purposes. The article presented here represents the integration of input received from all participants of the Roundtable, and forms the final product of this Special Session. The Roundtable contributors, i.e. managers, engineers, industrial consultants, and researchers, are listed in alphabetical order