COI Spotlight-Human Factors and System Applications
We continue our series COI Spotlight, which provides an overview of each new Center of Innovation (COI) within the Volpe Center. Featured this month is the Human Factors Research and System Applications COI, headed by its Director, Dr. Stephen M. Popkin.
Human error is the single most common cause of transportation accidents, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of the total. Understanding potential causes and fixes will become more challenging as systems become more sophisticated and add automated functionality, increasing the importance of user-centered system design.
The COI strives to foster awareness of the central role the human plays in our transportation system policies, structures and practices, and to support projects and sponsors across the Center to ensure human factors are appropriately addressed in system design and operations.
- Dr. Stephen Popkin, Director Human Factors and System Applications COI
Solid human engineering can reduce training costs, minimize the likelihood of human error in system operation, and mitigate the consequences of unavoidable error. This is the benefit of Human System Integration.
The COI's staff of internationally recognized human factors professionals provides systemic thinking with an operational focus through experimentation and demonstration both in support of its clients and those of Volpe Center project managers from other technical disciplines. The COI pioneers new relationships between humans and policy, and automation and technology, thus helping improve transportation safety, security and productivity, with due concern for unintended consequences. Technical staff maintains an active leadership role in an array of national and international associations, committees, and standards bodies.
The COI's client portfolio includes U.S. DOT operating agencies, principally the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). About one third of the COI's work is in support of other Volpe Center COI project portfolios. The core of the COI's work includes:
Aviation: research and analysis of flight simulation, runway safety, and flight deck technologies in support of the FAA human performance, and human-system performance requirements associated with NextGen. Specific projects include:
- Study the effect of pilot training on transfer of the skills between flight simulation and airplane operation and provide scientific guidance for flight simulator requirements, design, and certification.
- Develop metrics of system safety performance, including developing the Runway Incursion Severity Calculator, which categorizes the outcome severity of runway incursions, and the Separation Conformance metric for losses of standard separation in the air.
- Analyze controller, pilot, and vehicle driver error in runway operations.
- Provide guidance to the aviation community related to electronic flight bags, symbology, and moving map displays.
Rail: assess railroad system performance, investigate human performance in railroad accidents, and develop tools and methods to proactively manage risk to achieve safe and productive railroad operations in support of FRA. Specific projects include:
- Design and evaluation of grade crossing warning devices, locomotive cabs, and blue signal warnings to enhance operational safety.
- Develop, demonstrate, and evaluate proactive safety management systems such as behavior-based safety and the confidential reporting system, with the goal of identifying safety concerns before they cause harm.
- Study fatigue management in scheduling railroad operations and managing locomotive crews.
- Integrate human-systems into the design and evaluation of high-tech railroad systems and train control systems.
Highway: develop tools and methods to improve vehicle operator safety as well as that of passengers and other road users in support of the NHTSA and FMCSA. Specific projects include:
- User acceptance of vehicle-based systems that tailor warnings to driver workload and distraction and study usability of vehicle-based warning technologies.
- Research to improve the emergency evacuation of motor coaches.
- Simulator testing of vehicle-based alcohol counter-measures to help reduce alcohol impaired driving and associated crashes.
- Research of pedestrian safety with the advancement of quieter vehicles, such as hybrids.
A locomotive simulator at the Volpe Center Human Factors laboratory. (
Volpe Center photo)
