ADVANCED HUMAN ENGINEERING TOOLS

NUMEROUS TECHNIQUES AND METHODS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED BY HUMAN FACTORS (HF) RESEARCHERS FOR COLLECTING AND ANALYZING DATA TO PROVIDE SOLUTIONS TO MAN-MACHINE INTERFACE PROBLEMS. THE TOOLS MOST FREQUENTLY USED BY HF RESEARCHERS TODAY CAN NO LONGER BE EXPECTED TO KEEP PACE WITH THE RAPID ADVANCES IN MILITARY SYSTEMS. THE TECHNOLOGIES OF TODAY'S ADVANCED SYSTEMS REQUIRE THE HUMAN OPERATORS TO RELY MORE ON THEIR COGNITIVE SKILLS THAN ON PSYCHOMOTOR SKILLS, AS IN YEARS PAST. A METHOD IS PROPOSED HEREIN FOR IDENTIFYING ADVANCED TOOLS WITHIN THE CURRENT LITERATURE AND WITHIN THE FIELD OF BASIC AND APPLIED HUMAN RESEARCH. THE PHASES DURING SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT WHEN THE TOOLS ARE MOST LIKELY TO BE USED WILL BE IDENTIFIED. THE TOOLS WILL THEN BE TAXONOMIZED BY CATEGORY, FUNCTION, AND CLASS, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THEIR ANALYTIC, DESIGN, EVALUATION, OR INTEGRATIVE FEATURES. MILITARY HF SPECIALISTS WILL BE ASKED TO IDENTIFY THE ADVANCED RESEARCH TOOLS WHICH THEY BELIEVE WILL BEST FACILITATE HF EVALUATIONS OF THE SOLDIER-MACHINE INTERFACE. FINALLY, A COST-EFFECTIVENESS MATRIX WILL BE DEVELOPED FOR DETERMINING IF THE GAINS IN PERFORMANCE JUSTIFY THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH PROCURING AND MASTERING A NEW TOOL.