Investigating the Tradespace between Increased Automation and Optimal Manning on Aircraft Carrier Decks

With increasing prevalence and capabilities of autonomous systems as part of complex heterogeneous manned-unmanned environments (HMUEs), an important consideration is the impact of the introduction of automation on the optimal assignment of human personnel. The US Navy has implemented optimal staffing techniques before in the 1990's and 2000's with a "minimal staffing" approach. The results were poor, leading to the degradation of Naval preparedness. Clearly, another approach to determining optimal staffing is necessary. To this end, the goal of this research is to develop human performance models for use in determining optimal manning of HMUEs. The human performance models are developed using an agent-based simulation of the aircraft carrier flight deck, a representative safety-critical HMUE. The Personnel Multi-Agent Safety and Control Simulation (PMASCS) simulates and analyzes the effects of introducing generalized maintenance crew skill sets and accelerated failure repair times on the overall performance and safety of the carrier flight deck. A behavioral model of four operator types (ordnance officers, chocks and chains, fueling officers, plane captains, and maintenance operators) is presented here along with an aircraft failure model. The main focus of this work is on the maintenance operators and aircraft failure modeling, since they have a direct impact on total launch time, a primary metric for carrier deck performance. With PMASCS I explore the effects of two variables on total launch time of 22 aircraft: 1) skill level of maintenance operators and 2) aircraft failure repair times while on the catapult (referred to as Phase 4 repair times). It is found that neither introducing a generic skill set to maintenance crews nor introducing a technology to accelerate Phase 4 aircraft repair times improves the average total launch time of 22 aircraft. An optimal manning level of 3 maintenance crews is found under all conditions, the point at which any additional maintenance crews does not reduce the total launch time. An additional discussion is included about how these results change if the operations are relieved of the bottleneck of installing the holdback bar at launch time.

Development of Multi-modal and Super-resolved Retinal Imaging Systems

Advancements in retinal imaging technologies have drastically improved the quality of eye care in the past couple decades. Scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) are two examples of critical imaging modalities for the diagnosis of retinal pathologies. However current-generation SLO and OCT systems have limitations in diagnostic capability due to the following factors: the use of bulky tabletop systems, monochromatic imaging, and resolution degradation due to ocular aberrations and diffraction.

Bulky tabletop SLO and OCT systems are incapable of imaging patients that are supine, under anesthesia, or otherwise unable to maintain the required posture and fixation. Monochromatic SLO and OCT imaging prevents the identification of various color-specific diagnostic markers visible with color fundus photography like those of neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Resolution degradation due to ocular aberrations and diffraction has prevented the imaging of photoreceptors close to the fovea without the use of adaptive optics (AO), which require bulky and expensive components that limit the potential for widespread clinical use.

In this dissertation, techniques for extending the diagnostic capability of SLO and OCT systems are developed. These techniques include design strategies for miniaturizing and combining SLO and OCT to permit multi-modal, lightweight handheld probes to extend high quality retinal imaging to pediatric eye care. In addition, a method for extending true color retinal imaging to SLO to enable high-contrast, depth-resolved, high-fidelity color fundus imaging is demonstrated using a supercontinuum light source. Finally, the development and combination of SLO with a super-resolution confocal microscopy technique known as optical photon reassignment (OPRA) is demonstrated to enable high-resolution imaging of retinal photoreceptors without the use of adaptive optics.