Title:
Work Practice Simulation of Complex Human-Automation Systems: The Brahms Generalized Uberlingen Model
Abstract:
The Brahms Generalized Uberlingen Model (Brahms- GUM) was developed at NASA Ames within the Assurance for Flight Critical Systems technical theme as a design verification and validation methodology for assessing aviation safety. The human-centered design approach involves a detailed computer simulation of work practices that includes people interacting with flight-critical systems. Brahms-GUM was developed by analyzing and generalizing the roles, systems, and events in the Uberlingen 2002 accident, a scenario that can be simulated as a particular configuration of the model. Simulation experiments varying assumptions about aircraft flights and system malfunctions revealed the time-sensitive interactions among TCAS, the pilots, and air traffic controller (ATCO) and particularly how a routinely complicated situation became cognitively complex for the ATCO. Brahms-GUM demonstrates the strength of the framework for simulating asynchronous (or loosely coupled), distributed processes in which the sequence of behavioral interactions can become mutually constrained and unpredictable. The simulation generates metrics that can be compared to observational data and/or make predictions for redesign experiments. Brahms-G?M can be adapted for other accident investigations, for identifying possible failures in proposed highly integrated systems, and for developing recovery strategies and procedures for system malfunctions.
Bio:
Dr. William J. Clancey— Senior Research Scientist, Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition; previously on assignment to NASA Ames Research Center, Chief Scientist for Human-Centered Computing, Intelligent Systems Division (1998-2013). Received Computer Science PhD, Stanford University; Mathematical Sciences BA, Rice University. Founding member of Institute for Research on Learning (1987-1997), where he was lead inventor of Brahms, a work systems design tool based on simulating work practice. Clancey has extensive experience in developing AI applications to medicine, education, robotics, and spaceflight systems (including OCAMS, recipient of NASA JSC Exceptional Software Award). He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, Association for Advancement of AI, and the American College of Medical Informatics. He has published seven books (including Situated Cognition: On Human Knowledge and Computer Representations and Working on Mars: Voyages of Scientific Discovery with the Mars Exploration Rovers, recipient of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 2014 Gardner-Lasser Aerospace History Literature Award), and has presented invited lectures in over 20 countries.
