Abstract
This paper presents the results of a study to develop an automated analytical tool for establishing the role of man vs. machine in the operation and design of the AEGIS combatant Integrated Survivability Management System (ISMS). ISMS enables a ship to control damage and continue to defend itself when damaged–“fight while hurt”– by integrating damage control (DC) and combat systems (CS) functions.
The initial activity in the human engineering process was to develop a model of information-processing and decision-making tasks for ISMS damage control activities aboard an Aegis-class ship. A task flow model developed in a previous effort was expanded and refined to include detailed damage control activities in Damage Control Central (DCC), and activities for repair of Vital Systems and Fume and Airtight Integrity. Task flow sequences were created based on Navy doctrine and subject matter expert (SME) interviews, validated at NAVSEA, and modeled in a fire and flooding demonstration scenario.
The ISMS task sequence model was exercised using an analytical tool, designated Simulation Workload and Assessment Modeling (SIMWAM). Use of this tool identifies operator workloads and interruptions, information-processing and decision-making task bottlenecks, over- and under-utilized operators, and task delays in multiple complex damage control scenarios.
By taking advantage of SIMWAM's capabilities to model complex multiple-operator man-machine systems, this ISMS damage control model will be particularly useful for front-end analysis of ISMS design options, and for modeling changes to damage control doctrine, procedures, personnel allocations, and organization under a variety of damage control scenarios.
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