HUMAN SUPERVISORY CONTROL OF AUTOMATION

Abstract

Automated subsystems permit the same sort of interaction to occur between a human supervisor and the process. Supervisory control behavior is interpreted to apply broadly to include vehicle control, continuous process control, robots and discrete tasks, medical and hospital systems, home automation, and many other human–machine systems. This chapter discusses the various supervisory roles in more detail, bringing in examples of research problems and prototype systems to aid the supervisor in these roles. Having a human supervisor for large-scale automation enables the possibility for various decision support tools to be employed, computer-based simulations that are not inherent in the automation itself. Supervisory command systems have been developed for mechanical manipulators that utilize both analogic and symbolic interfaces with the supervisor and that enable teaching to be both rapid and available in terms of high-level language.