Evaluation of Ecological Interface Design for Supporting Cognitive Activity of Nuclear Plant Operators

Abstract

The paper describes procedure and results of evaluation of the Ecological display for monitoring and control of the drum-separators at the RBMK-type NPP. This task is characterized by heavy cognitive workload and insufficient human-machine interface. Trial operation of the proposed Ecological display has been carried out during four months at the full scope simulator of the Leningrad NPP with participation of six licensed control room operators. Four exercises and three realistic scenarios were used to collect experimental data. After execution of the tasks the participants filled the questionnaire.The results from the trial operation demonstrate that the ecological interface essentially quickens response time and execution of tasks (in more than 80% of all cases). The Ecological display provides operator with efficient feedback which ensures moderate increase of accuracy and smoothness of control actions. It was revealed that the use of the ecological interface four time reduces frequency of errors compared with the use of conventional interface. However, the efficiency of the Ecological display depends on situation. We revealed that the additional logical processing and the additional director pointer are required to prevent operator from delays and too sharp control actions