The effect of screen size on mission commander's situation awareness

Situation awareness lost is a common factor leading to human error in the aviation industry. However, few studies have investigated the effect on situation awareness where the control interface is a touch-screen device that supports simultaneous multi-touch input and information output. This research aims to conduct an experiment to evaluate the difference in situation awareness on a large screen device, DiamondTouch (DT107), and a small screen device, iPad, both with multi-touch interactive functions. The Interface Operation and Situation Awareness Testing Simulator (IOSATS), is a simulator to test the three basis interface operations (Search Target, Information Reading, and Change Detection) by implementing a simplified search and rescue scenario. The result of this experiment will provide reliable data for future research for improving operator's situation awareness in the avionic domain.

Investigating the factors influencing cyclist awareness and behaviour : an on-road study of cyclist situation awareness

Situation awareness, ones understanding of ‘what is going on’, is a critical commodity for road users. Although the concept has received much attention in the driving context, situation awareness in vulnerable road users, such as cyclists, remains unexplored. This paper presents the findings from an exploratory on-road study of cyclist situation awareness, the aim of which was to explore how cyclists develop situation awareness, what their situation awareness comprises, and what the causes of degraded cyclist situation awareness may be. Twenty participants cycled a pre-defined urban on-road study route. A range of data were collected, including verbal protocols, forward scene video and rear video, and a network analysis procedure was used to describe and assess cyclist situation awareness. The analysis produced a number of key findings regarding cyclist situation awareness, including the potential for cyclists’ awareness of other road users to be degraded due to additional situation awareness and decision making requirements that are placed on them in certain road situations. Strategies for improving cyclists’ situation awareness are discussed.

Lane filtering and situation awareness in motorcyclists : an on-road proof of concept study

In Victoria, as in other jurisdictions, there is very little research on the potential risks and benefits of lane filtering by motorcyclists, particularly from a road safety perspective. This on-road proof of concept study aimed to investigate whether and how lane filtering influences motorcycle rider situation awareness at intersections and to address factors that need to be considered for the design of a larger study in this area. Situation awareness refers to road users’ understanding of ‘what is going on’ around them and is a critical commodity for safe performance. Twenty-five experienced motorcyclists rode their own instrumented motorcycle around an urban test route in Melbourne whilst providing verbal protocols. Lane filtering occurred in 27% of 43 possible instances in which there were one or more vehicles in the traffic queue and the traffic lights were red on approach to the intersection. A network analysis procedure, based on the verbal protocols provided by motorcyclists, was used to identify differences in motorcyclist situation awareness between filtering and non-filtering events. Although similarities in situation awareness across filtering and nonfiltering motorcyclists were found, the analysis revealed some differences. For example, filtering motorcyclists placed more emphasis on the timing of the traffic light sequence and on their own actions when moving to the front of the traffic queue, whilst non-filtering motorcyclists paid greater attention to traffic moving through the intersection and approaching from behind. Based on the results of this study, the paper discusses some methodological and theoretical issues to be addressed in a larger study comparing situation awareness between filtering and non-filtering motorcyclists.

Awesome foursome? The compatibility of situation awareness across drivers, riders, cyclists, and pedestrians

Collisions between distinct road users (e.g. drivers and motorcyclists) make a substantial contribution to the road trauma burden. Although evidence suggests distinct road users interpret the same road situations differently, it is not clear how road users’ situation awareness differs, nor is it clear which differences might lead to conflicts. This article presents the findings from an on-road study which examined driver, cyclist, motorcyclist and pedestrian situation awareness at intersections. The findings suggest that situation awareness at intersection is markedly different across the four road user groups studied, and that some of these differences may create conflicts between the different road users. The findings also suggest that the causes of the differences identified relate to road design and road user experience. In closing, the key role of road design and training in supporting safe interactions between distinct road users is discussed.

Waiting for warning: Driver Situation awareness at rural rail level crossings

Driver behaviour at rail level crossings represents a key area for further research. This paper describes an on-road study comparing novice and experienced driver situation awareness at rural rail level crossings. Participants provided verbal protocols while driving a pre-determined rural route incorporating ten rail level crossings. Driver situation awareness was assessed using a network analysis approach. The analysis revealed key differences between novice and experienced drivers' situation awareness. In particular, the novice drivers seemed to be more reliant on rail level crossing warnings and their situation awareness was less focussed on the environment outside of the rail level crossing. In closing, the implications for rail level crossing safety are discussed.

Exploring schema-driven differences in situation awareness between road users : an on-road study of driver, cyclist and motorcyclist situation awareness

Collisions between different road users make a substantial contribution to road trauma. Although evidence suggests that different road users interpret the same road situations differently, it is not clear how road users' situation awareness differs, nor is it clear which differences might lead to conflicts. This article presents the findings from an on-road study conducted to examine driver, motorcyclist and cyclist situation awareness in different road environments. The findings suggest that, in addition to minor differences in the structure of different road users' situation awareness (i.e. amount of information and how it is integrated), the actual content of situation awareness in terms of road user schemata, the resulting interaction with the world and the information underpinning situation awareness is markedly different. Further examination indicates that the differences are likely to be compatible along arterial roads, shopping strips and at roundabouts, but that they may create conflicts between different road users at intersections. Interventions designed to support compatible situation awareness and behaviour between different road users are discussed. Practitioner Summary: Incompatible situation awareness plays a key role in collisions between different road users (e.g. drivers and motorcyclists). This on-road study examined situation awareness in drivers, motorcyclists and cyclists, identifying the key differences and potential conflicts that arise. The findings are used to propose interventions designed to enhance the compatibility of situation awareness between road users.

From the bush to the burbs : a comparison of driver situation awareness at rural and urban railway level crossings

The problem of collisions between road users and trains at rail level crossings (RLXs) remains resistant to current countermeasures. One factor underpinning these collisions is poor Situation Awareness (SA) on behalf of the road user involved (i.e. not being aware of an approaching train). Although this is a potential threat at any RLX, the factors influencing SA may differ depending on whether the RLX is located in a rural or urban road environment. Despite this, there has been no empirical investigation regarding how road user SA might differ across distinct RLX environments. This knowledge is needed to establish the extent to which a uniform approach to RLX design and safety is acceptable. The aim of this paper is to investigate the differences in driver SA at rural versus urban RLXs. We present analyses of driver SA in both rural and urban RLX environments based on two recent on-road studies undertaken in Victoria, Melbourne. The findings demonstrate that driver SA is markedly different at rural and urban RLXs, and also that poor SA regarding approaching trains may be caused by different factors. The implications for RLX design and safety are discussed.

The effect of autonomy transparency in human-robot interactions : a preliminary study on operator cognitive workload and situation awareness in multiple heterogeneous UAV management

The autonomous capabilities in collaborative unmanned aircraft systems are growing rapidly. Without appropriate transparency, the effectiveness of the future multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) management paradigm will be significantly limited by the human agent’s cognitive abilities; where the operator’s CognitiveWorkload (CW) and Situation Awareness (SA) will present as disproportionate. This proposes a challenge in evaluating the impact of robot autonomous capability feedback, allowing the human agent greater transparency into the robot’s autonomous status - in a supervisory role. This paper presents; the motivation, aim, related works, experiment theory, methodology, results and discussions, and the future work succeeding this preliminary study. The results in this paper illustrates that, with a greater transparency of a UAV’s autonomous capability, an overall improvement in the subjects’ cognitive abilities was evident, that is, with a confidence of 95%, the test subjects’ mean CW was demonstrated to have a statistically significant reduction, while their mean SA was demonstrated to have a significant increase.

Design of a tablet sized human-computer interface and its effect on situation awareness

Emergency Response Teams increasingly use interactive technology to help manage information and communications. The challenge is to maintain a high situation awareness for different interactive devices sizes. This research specifically compared a handheld interactive device in the form of an iPad with a large interactive multi-touch tabletop. A search and rescue inspired simulator was designed to test operator situation awareness for the two sized devices. The results show that operators had better situation awareness on the tabletop device when the operation related to detecting of moving targets, searching target locations, distinguishing target types, and comprehending displayed information.

Situation awareness application

This thesis describes the design and implementation of a situation awareness application. The application gathers data from sensors including accelerometers for monitoring earthquakes, carbon monoxide sensors for monitoring fires, radiation detectors, and dust sensors. The application also gathers Internet data sources including data about traffic congestion on daily commute routes, information about hazards, news relevant to the user of the application, and weather. The application sends the data to a Cloud computing service which aggregates data streams from multiple sites and detects anomalies. Information from the Cloud service is then displayed by the application on a tablet, computer monitor, or television screen. The situation awareness application enables almost all members of a community to remain aware of critical changes in their environments.

Towards a situation-awareness-driven design of operational business intelligence & analytics systems

With the swamping and timeliness of data in the organizational context, the decision maker’s choice of an appropriate decision alternative in a given situation is defied. In particular, operational actors are facing the challenge to meet business-critical decisions in a short time and at high frequency. The construct of Situation Awareness (SA) has been established in cognitive psychology as a valid basis for understanding the behavior and decision making of human beings in complex and dynamic systems. SA gives decision makers the possibility to make informed, time-critical decisions and thereby improve the performance of the respective business process. This research paper leverages SA as starting point for a design science project for Operational Business Intelligence and Analytics systems and suggests a first version of design principles.

A situation awareness interface for a bi-wheeled industrial hovercraft: design, development and evaluation

The intention of this thesis is to develop a prototype interface that enables an operator to control a bi-wheeled industrial hovercraft that will work within a fusion power plant if the automation system fails. This fusion power plant is part of the ITER project a conjoint effort of various industrialized countries to develop cleaner sources of energy. The development of the interface prototype will be based on situation awareness concepts, which provide a means to understand how human operators perceive the world around, then process that information and make decisions based on the knowledge that they already have and the projected knowledge of the reactions that will occur in the world in response to the actions the operator makes. Two major situation awareness methods will be used, GDTA as a means to discover the requirements the interface needs to solve, and SAGAT to conduct the evaluation on the three interfaces. This technique can isolate the differences an operator has in situation awareness when presented with relevant information given by each of the three interfaces that were built for this thesis. Where the first interface presents the information within the operator’s focal point of view in a pictorial style, the second interface shows the same information within the same point of view has the first interface but only shows it in a textual manner. While the third interface shows the relevant information in the operator’s peripheral field of view. Also SAGAT can provide insight on the question to know if providing the operator with feed-forward information about the stoppage distances of the bi-wheeled industrial hovercraft has any effect on the operator’s decision making.

Enhancing Evacuation Plans with a Situation Awareness System Based on End-User Knowledge Provision.

Recent disasters have shown that having clearly defined preventive procedures and decisions is a critical component that minimizes evacuation hazards and ensures a rapid and successful evolution of evacuation plans. In this context, we present our Situation-Aware System for enhancing Evacuation Plans (SASEP) system, which allows creating end-user business rules that technically support the specific events, conditions and actions related to evacuation plans. An experimental validation was carried out where 32 people faced a simulated emergency situation, 16 of them using SASEP and the other 16 using a legacy system based on static signs. From the results obtained, we compare both techniques and discuss in which situations SASEP offers a better evacuation route option, confirming that it is highly valuable when there is a threat in the evacuation route. In addition, a study about user satisfaction using both systems is presented showing in which cases the systems are assessed as satisfactory, relevant and not frustrating.