A Regulatory Perspective: Have We Done Enough on Grasping Automation Failure?

Abstract

This paper responds to Skraaning and Jamieson’s target paper “The Failure to Grasp Automation Failure.” We acknowledge that the target paper made important contributions to automation research in the human factors community. It analyzed automation failure events in complex operational systems in contrast to the vast majority of laboratory research on human-automation interaction. The paper presented a taxonomy of automation failure. The analysis and taxonomy demonstrate the integration of approaches to grasping automation failures from system instrumentation and controls, human factors engineering, and human reliability analysis. We reviewed the regulatory framework related to use of automation in nuclear power plants and examined whether the framework elements adequately address “Failure to Grasp Automation Failure” using the taxonomy in the target paper. Overall, we believe that the target paper could enhance the consideration for potential automation failures in the design and regulatory review process of automation technologies.