Modeling Automation Within an Abstraction Hierarchy

Abstract

Work Domain Analysis (WDA) has been used within cognitive engineering as an analytic framework for developing systems design recommendations. The current research examines different treatments of automation by developing and comparing illustrative abstraction hierarchy models of a relatively simple automated system, a camera. A multi-part AH model (system, environment, and automation) was constructed to represent the camera in order to examine the benefits and disadvantages of integrating automation in the system model as opposed to representing it separately, as applied to implications for automation design recommendations. Comparison of the two models revealed that integrating automation was more descriptive of the interaction between the automation and other functions of the camera, whereas using a separate model clarified important relationships between the three domains. Thus, the single model approach may prove more useful for the management of automation while the dual modeling approach provides more opportunity for new design solutions.