"Answering the So What?” Question:  How can Human Factors help with implementing automation in the Oil and Gas Industry?

January 6, 2023

10:00 AM ET

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The better the automated systems are, the lower the situation awareness of the human operators and the less likely that they will be able to take over manual control when needed. This is one of the ironies of automation.

At the same time, automated systems are rapidly growing in popularity in the oil and gas sector due to their many advantages, from reducing mistakes to improving efficiency. However, as the science from situation awareness has found, these systems introduce new challenges and risks.

As a kickoff to the new MOU between the Society of Petroleum Engineers Human Factors Technical Section (SPE-HFTS) and HFES, two panelists—Dr. Mica Endsley and Dr. Marcin Nazaruk—will discuss how the science of situation awareness can be applied and translated to the complexities of the oil and gas sector.

Dr. Endsley will introduce the “human-autonomy systems oversight model” presented in her paper, From Here to Autonomy. This was developed based on several decades of applied research that includes out-of-the-loop performance problems, monitoring, and trust, among many others.

Dr. Nazaruk will present some of the design challenges in the oil and gas sector, which are currently being addressed through automation. The webinar will provide an opportunity to discover and discuss some key solutions for reducing the risk of human performance issues when interacting with autonomous systems, such as human-automation interface features, central automation interaction paradigms comprising levels of automation, adaptive automation, and granularity of control approaches.