A Standard Approach to Control Room Design

Abstract

In the developed and developing countries most of our lives are dominated by electronic systems, whether these are for transportation, food distribution, supply of electricity or air transport. Each of these systems will require to be controlled and in most cases this will be exercised from a centralised node — a control room.

Current, electronically based control rooms were preceded by mechanical ones — such as manual signal boxes on the railways — where direct linkages limited the distances between control point and operator. The advent of electronic links, replacing hydraulic and mechanical ones, revolutionised the entire topology of controlling systems. The subsequent twin effects of increasing geographic cover, and economies of scale, has raised the stakes for getting control rooms right the first time. The additional use of computers, to support the decision making undertaken by control room operators, adds yet another dimension to the complexities involved in the planning, design and implementation of control rooms. It is now clear that for most control rooms, and certainly the larger ones, a systematic approach needs to be adopted if the risks of failure are to be avoided.

This paper discusses some of the key issues in control room planning and design including an approach based around the International Standard 11064 — The Ergonomic Design of Control Rooms (Ref. 1)