The Man-Machine System Concept

The man-machine concept as developed in this paper refers to a closed-loop control system comprising a machine and an actively participating human operator. The human component attributes are described with both general and specific engineering models. Particular emphasis is placed on the human adaptive characteristics which make for an unusual control system. Predictive behavior is discussed in terms of actual-physical and conceptual-effective display organizations resulting in compensatory, pursuit, and precognitive system organizations. Adaptive-operator transfer characteristics are presented, and applications of the adaptive model for random-input compensatory system design are listed. As an example, the model is used to estimate operator and system characteristics for a specific system, and the estirnates are compared with experimental results derived from associated empirical data. In a discussion of performance assessment, the basic attributes which any criterion for system performance should possess are reviewed, and a modus operandi for manual control system performance assessment is proposed.