The Human Role in Automation

Abstract

A survey of the history of how humans have interacted with automation is presented. Starting with the early introduction of automation into the Industrial Revolution to the modern applications that occur in unmanned air vehicle systems, many issues are brought to light. Levels of automation are quantified and a preliminary list delineating what tasks humans can perform better than machines is presented. A number of application areas are surveyed that have or are currently dealing with positive and negative issues as humans interact with machines. The application areas where humans specifically interact with automation include agriculture, communications systems, inspection systems, manufacturing, medical and diagnostic applications, robotics, and teaching. The benefits and disadvantages of how humans interact with modern automation systems are presented in a trade-off space discussion. The modern problems relating to how humans have to deal with automation include trust, social acceptance, loss of authority, safety concerns, adaptivity of automation leading to unplanned unexpectancy, cost advantages, and possible performance gained.