Analysis of Operator´s Visual Process Using a Human Information Processing Model

In order to understand the generation mechanism of various types of human errors in industrial production, we have developed a human information-processing model to simulate human operators´ behavior under abnormal situations. In this study we proposed a new human model and installed the model on a PC. The developed model is used to analyze the visual process when the operator monitors the overview panel of a plant simulator. The visual process is decided by characteristics of the panel information, the human operator´s mental and physical conditions, parameters of the perceptual processor and so on. The simulation results coincided qualitatively with observations of actual plant operations and simulator training. Accordingly, we can study how to prevent human errors and evaluate the effects of various measures using the human model