Impact of Adaptive Automation for Supporting Operation in a Nuclear Power Plant. An Explorative Study

The intrinsically complex operation of nuclear power plants can benefit from advances in technology. New forms of automation, exploiting an increasing availability of data in real time, integrating information from several sources, can adapt more effectively to dynamically varying situations, and with the help of smart interaction with the user could improve the human performance in many situations. One of those forms of automation, adaptive automation, could monitor and recognize significant situations and help in balancing the task distribution between the system and the operators with the goal of increasing performance. As for any type of automation, the introduction of this concept can fundamentally change the work processes and demand on the operators, therefore, its impact on the operators needs to be evaluated. The presented study explored the effects of a prototype of an adaptive system assisting an operator during a normal operating procedure in a nuclear power plant. The first results are encouraging, showing high user acceptance and generally positive feedback.

Keywords: Adaptive automation, Operation support, User study, Human performance, Computerized procedures, Qualitative study.

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