Human Factors in Advanced Applications for Process Control

Ling Rothrock* and Peter Bullemer* Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA Human Centered Solutions, 8746 Tall Grass Place, Lone Tree, CO 80124, USA Thirty years ago, highly visible disasters at process control plants, such as the Three Mile Island nuclear plant and Union Carbide’s Bhopal chemical plant (Woods et al., 1987; Perrow, 1999), launched a revolution in cognitive ergonomics. Researchers began to develop theories and methods that integrated humans and machines as complex systems (Woods & Roth, 1988; Rasmussen et al., 1994). As pioneers in the area, Vicente and Rasmussen (1992) addressed issues in supervisory control and human errors, which later broadened to widely used concepts, such as cognitive systems engineering (Rasmussen et al., 1994) and cognitive work analysis (Vicente, 1999). In the years since their research investigations in the power industry, technological advances have greatly improved distributed control systems (DCSs) with advanced control techniques, such as model predictive controllers (MPCs) and real-time optimizers (RTOs). The purpose of this special issue is to report on current research efforts in advanced process control. The issue is divided into three topics