A human resource-based crew station design methodology

We report on the use of human resource based simulation tools to initiate performance evaluation of crew station designs very early in the design cycle. These tools, CREWCUT W/Index, use a multiple resource model (Wickens, 1984) of human attention to represent the levels of conflict a human operator incurs when performing tasks in a hypothetical crew station. While similar to workload-based crew station evaluation, our approach differs in that it is grounded in the physical layout of the proposed cockpit and the physical capacities of a human operator, rather than in abstract or subjective notions of workload. Also, we use our methodology for initial design guidance rather than for later evaluation (e.g. TLX, SWAT). Results show extremely rapid capability to study performance effects of multiple crew station design