The Human Factors Ergonomics Society (HFES) will host a webinar in January to focus on design challenges in the oil and gas sector that are currently being addressed through automation.

The webinar session is an opportunity to examine key solutions for reducing the risk of human performance issues when interacting with autonomous systems, such as human-automation interface features, central automation interaction paradigms comprising levels of automation, adaptive automation, and granularity of control approaches.

The session is a kickoff to the new MOU between the Society of Petroleum Engineers Human Factors Technical Section (SPE-HFTS) and HFES.

Panelists Dr. Mica Endsley, president of SA Technologies and former chief scientist at the U.S. Air Force, and Dr. Marcin Nazaruk, chairperson of the SPE Human Factors Technical Section, will share insights and information about the “human-autonomy systems oversight model” presented in Dr. Endsley’s papers, “From Here to Autonomy.” The model was developed based on several decades of applied research that includes out-of-the-loop performance problems, monitoring, and trust, among many other topics.

Register online for the January 6 webinar, "Answering the ‘So What?’ Question:  How can human Factors help with implementing automation in the oil and gas industry?”