Advanced automation has been highlighted as contributory to several accidents involving modern bridge support systems and automation aiding maritime pilots for maneuvering and navigation. This paper argues for reskilling for automation collaboration, that operators need training that provides an understanding of what data the automation uses and how, and to transfer this skill to their working environment and be able to make full use of the automation even under influence of inaccurate data. As a case, this paper explores the predictor automation, which is an advanced navigation aid that visualizes an estimation of the ship’s future trajectory on an electronic chart display. Field studies and a literature review of maritime accidents were carried out to determine difficulties maritime pilots have with understanding the predictor. This research provides valuable guidance for how automation transparency can be an important part of reskilling and how to achieve it.

Our work aims to explore novel approaches to the challenge of designing the interaction between people and automation. Through a case study within the domain of air traffic control, we focus on designing fine-grained human–automation interactions. We design a concept and develop an interactive lo-fi prototype of an assisted sketching system to enable air traffic controllers to interact with automation in a fine-grained manner and to externalize mental images. Assisted sketching seems to offer a possible way to communicate different degrees of predictive certainty using visual cues and interaction. Our insights further suggest that externalization through assisted sketching could encourage exploration of future scenarios, and support communication and collaboration between air traffic controllers and between air traffic controllers and pilots. The explorative benefits for the individual decision-making process might be more evident in situations where air traffic controllers have more time for reflection, for example during planning or debriefing and in educational settings.

Geographic visualizations are, due to the limited need for vertical navigation,  suitable for touch tables. In this poster we consider the design of interaction design for selection and manipulation through touch on the screen used for the display of 3D geographic visualization---in our case the visualization of and interaction with drone traffic over rural and urban areas---focusing on moving from a monoscopic to a more immersive, stereoscopic touch table, and how this move affects the interaction design. With a monoscopic display our stereoscopic vision uses the graphics to perceive the location of the surface, and touch interaction can naturally and intuitively be performed on top of 3D objects. Moving to stereocopic display, for increased sense of immersion, the graphics no longer provide visual cues about the location of the screen. We argue that this motivates modification of the design principles, with an alternative interaction design as a result.

Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) is an appropriate approach in high-stakes domains, such as Air Traffic Management (ATM). It provides focus on human expert performance in regular as well as contingency situations. However, CWA is not suitable for the design of a first-of-a-kind system, since there is nothing to analyze before the start of the design process. In 2017, unmanned traffic management (UTM) for intense drone traffic in cities was such a system. Making things worse, the UTM system has to be in place before the traffic, since it provides basic safety. In this paper we present conceptual designing as a bootstrapping approach to CWA for UTM as a first-of-a-kind system.

This paper presents a framework for reasoning about ‘timely response’, and control versus the temporal organisation of a controlling system. By three empirical examples, we show how a controlling system can be described in terms of perception points, decision points and action points. Our conclusions are that (1) temporal expectancies shape our ability to exercise control at least as much our ability to understand relations and causality, but temporality is rarely part of approaches to modelling human or system performance, (2) temporal organisation of activities shape our ability to exercise control, (3) by utilising the temporal control framework, we can describe important properties of the temporal organisation of a socio-technical system, and (4) the capacity of modelling is limited to what can be known or imagined. Therefore, models describing resilience or stability should include temporality and be based on frameworks generic enough to be applied to a wide variety of situations.

This paper argues that state, system, and process descriptions of situation awareness (SA) are interdependent. Based on SA research from the last 30 years, the paper proposes a holistic SA framework. SA states emerge from processes of exploring situations through SA systems. Reflecting research on safety II (resilience), in describing SA states, the framework distinguishes frames (what situations are considered) from implications (regarding the situations) of objects on and of an event horizon. The paper describes and discusses SA system and process dependencies on SA states. It also describes SA system components as mediators and catalysts for SA, SA system properties (e.g. buffering SA), and dynamic SA system formation. Based on an analysis of four enactments of Air Traffic Control situations, the paper argues that what is domain-characteristic may not characterise all situations in a domain. The SA field could thus benefit from incrementally refining a nuanced cross-domain framework.

Decision support tools for efficient dispatching of fire and rescue resources are developed and evaluated. The tools can give suggestions about which resources to dispatch to new accidents, and help the decision makers in evaluating the current preparedness for handling future accidents. The tools are evaluated using simulation game based experiments, with players from the fire and rescue services. The results indicate that the tools can help the fire and rescue services in identifying the closest resources to new accidents, and to select resources that preserve the preparedness in the area. However, the results also indicate that there is a risk that the tools increase the decision time. 

It has been realized that resilience as a concept involves several contradictory definitions, both for instance resilience as agile adjustment and as robust resistance to situations. Our analysis of resilience concepts and models suggest that beyond simplistic definitions, it is possible to draw up a systemic resilience model (SyRes) that maintains these opposing characteristics without contradiction. We outline six functions in a systemic model, drawing primarily on resilience engineering, and disaster response: anticipation, monitoring, response, recovery, learning, and self-monitoring. The model consists of four areas: Event-based constraints, Functional Dependencies, Adaptive Capacity and Strategy. The paper describes dependencies between constraints, functions and strategies. We argue that models such as SyRes should be useful both for envisioning new resilience methods and metrics, as well as for engineering and evaluating resilient systems.

We present a visualization system for incident commanders in urban search and rescue scenarios that supports the inspection and access path planning in post-disaster structures. Utilizing point cloud data acquired from unmanned robots, the system allows for assessment of automatically generated paths, whose computation is based on varying risk factors, in an interactive 3D environment increasing immersion. The incident commander interactively annotates and reevaluates the acquired point cloud based on live feedback. We describe design considerations, technical realization, and discuss the results of an expert evaluation that we conducted to assess our system.

Dynamisk planering innebär bland annat att brandmännen delar in sig i mindre grupper än traditionellt. Dessa kan då arbeta förebyggande med utbildning eller placeras strategiskt till exempel i närheten av olycksdrabbade vägsträckor, för att snabbare kunna nå fram till en olycksplats. Då en olycka inträffar larmas de brandmän som snabbast kan nå fram, och det kan vara nödvändigt att larma flera olika grupper.

En utmaning vid dynamisk planering är att planeringssituationen blir svårare. Det är inte längre självklart vilka brandmän som ska larmas till en viss olycka. Det kan också vara svårt att hitta de bästa placeringarna för brandmän som snabbt ska kunna göra en insats.

I projektet har vi utvecklat och utvärderat datorbaserade verktyg som kan stödja dynamisk planering av räddningstjänst.

Bland verktygen finns en beredskapskalkylator med tillhörande visualisering, vilken beräknar beredskapen som en funktion av tiden det tar för de nödvändiga resurserna att nå fram till en viss typ av olycka och sannolikheten för att olyckan ska inträffa i närområdet. Ett annat verktyg kan ge förslag på vilka resurser som bör skickas till en olycksplats för att de ska komma fram så fort som möjligt. Ett tredje verktyg kan ge förslag på hur fordon och personal dynamiskt bör placeras för att beredskapen ska förbättras, dvs. de ska kunna nå fram så fort som möjligt till de platser där det är störst sannolikhet att en olycka kommer att inträffa.

Verktygen har utvärderats genom två experimentserier. I experimenten testades mänskligt beslutsfattande i en simulerad räddningstjänstmiljö. I den första serien fick personal från olika räddningstjänster prova på dynamisk planering utan hjälp av de datorbaserade verktygen. I den andra serien fick andra räddningstjänster köra samma scenarier, men då ta hjälp av de i projektet utvecklade verktygen.

Resultaten visar att verktygen kan hjälpa räddningstjänsten med planeringen av beredskapen, men också att det finns risk att detta sker på bekostnad av att planeringen tar något längre tid. En tydlig majoritet av de deltagande räddningstjänstbefälen var positivt inställda till de utvecklade verktygen och tyckte verktyg av detta slag skulle kunna hjälpa dem i det dagliga arbetet.

Resultaten tydliggör också att olika personer – till och med nära kollegor inom samma räddningstjänst – uppfattar begreppet beredskap på olika sätt. Det visade sig dock att beredskapsvisualiseringen kan bidra till att denna skillnad i uppfattning minskar; i den andra experimentserien, där de hade tillgång till detta verktyg, minskade variationerna i bedömningarna och deltagarnas uppfattningar stämde bättre överens med den beräknade beredskapen.