Ship-SHAPE Role of Man and Automation (ROMAN)

STATUS
: Currently Available

GENERAL OVERVIEW:
The objective of the ROMAN tool is to define alternate function allocation/role of man strategies which brings the expertise of the HSI specialist, system engineer, and operational subject matter experts to bear on the issues of reengineering the function allocation strategy in existing systems, defining the role of man vs automation in the system, and defining the requirements to support alternative roles of man; and develop alternative design approaches based on technology availability assumptions and requirements, and human-centered automation requirements and strategies.

In identifying the candidate roles of the human in the system, the emphasis, from a reduced manning perspective, is to automate tasks which are currently performed manually. Identifying manpower determination lessons learned in baseline comparison systems involves assessing the adequacy of the allocation of functions to human or machine performance in these systems, and identification of where human functions and tasks can be automated. This assessment requires a reverse engineering of the function allocation approach underlying the design concept implemented in existing system. Through reverse engineering the rationale for allocation decisions can be made explicit and opportunities for alternate allocations can be explored. Alternative role of the human concepts involve alternate approaches to automation, providing decision aiding to reduce human workload, and improved design of human-machine interfaces to simplify tasks and reduce workloads.

The requirements associated with specific function allocation/role of man concepts are then identified which include task requirements (information, performance capabilities, decision and support requirements, task sequencing, and time dimensions of tasks), human knowledge/skill requirements, and requirements for containing human errors. These requirements are generated for specific mission scenarios which represent configurations of mission objectives, threat and own force deployment, system conditions of readiness, and special conditions (environmental, operational, and tactical).

The ROMAN tool provides the HSI analyst with the capability to import a set of functions, allocate the functions and assign roles to human performance and automation in the performance of each function. The allocation process, depicted below, requires the analyst to determine if the function can be fully automated. If so, the role of the human (if any) is identified. If not, the decision is if the function can be performed by the automated system with human supervision. If not, the decision is – can the function be performed by an interaction of human and machine, where the actual roles vary with workload and scheduling requirements. If this approach is judged not to be feasible, the decision is can the function be performed by the human with machine aiding. If not, then the function must be performed manually.

APPROPRIATE USES:
Man - Machine function allocation.
Allocation tradeoffs.
Development of alternate system design concepts.

INPUTS REQUIRED:
• Function Name
• Function requirements

PROCESSING TECHNIQUES:
Data basing, report generation, heuristic application of allocation rules and strategies.

OUTPUT:
Function allocations and roles of humans and automation.

STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT: Complete

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