Effect of Automating Procedural Work on Situation Awareness and Workload

Abstract

Objective In future deep space exploration missions, crew will have to work more autonomously from Earth. Greater crew autonomy will increase dependence on automated systems. This study investigates the performance effects of different strategies to automate procedural work for space exploration operations. Background The following strategies are investigated for performing procedural work: • Manual Work uses no procedure automation and crew performs all actions. • Shared Work uses procedure automation to perform some actions within a procedure while crew performs other actions. • Supervised Work uses procedure automation to perform procedure actions while crew supervises the automation. Method Twenty-seven participants participated in a planetary habitat scenario-based simulation using electronic procedures with automatable actions to investigate the effect of these strategies on situation awareness (SA) and workload. This study used a modification of the Situation Presence Assessment Method to measure SA and the Bedford Workload Scale to measure subjective workload. Results Mean response times and accuracy for SA queries show no significant difference among the three strategies. Bedford Workload ratings compared across the three strategies indicate that participants rated their workload as highest in the Manual Work condition, followed by the Shared Work condition, and lowest in the Supervised Work condition. Conclusion The study hypothesized that increased levels of automation would lead to lower subjective workload and decreased SA. Although no significant difference in SA was observed, subjective workload was lower in automation strategies. Based on subjective ratings, 93% of participants preferred some form of automation, with 56% preferring the Shared Work automation condition.

Human Factors in Spaceflight: New Progress on a Long Journey

“…Workload and situational awareness are relevant for many topics in human factors. Schreckenghost and colleagues (2023) examined three strategies for automating electronic procedural work to help crew complete tasks in a planetary habitat simulation. Findings suggest over 90% of participants preferred some form of automation and workload was lowered in automation strategies.…”

What Does an Emerging Intelligence Augmentation Economy Mean for HF/E? Can Learning Engineering Help?

“…The nature of human endeavor and productivity is changing with the advancement of artificial intelligence, extended reality (XRblending virtual and real environments), and Internet of Things (IoTinterconnection of computing devices embedded in everyday objects) technologies. Increasingly the work of humans will be shared with or the supervising of automated intelligent agents (Schreckenghost et al, 2022). An "intelligence augmentation economy" is replacing the knowledge economy.…”