Part 2: Automation and Humans

Humans need to interact with automation, giving commands and setpoints, among other things. Similarly, automated systems need to tell humans about the current state of processing. Faults and exceptions need to be made clear. Diagnostic information needs to be conveyed. But beyond these routine communications, there is another level of interaction.

Automation is a faithful servant. Automation is a tool and is built, developed, and maintained by humans. But it is different from all other tools in that it is intelligent. And beyond simply being intelligent, it has now developed the capability of being aware—aware of its surroundings, and even self-aware! In this scenario, humans and automation need to march shoulder to shoulder.

This part has the following chapters:

• Chapter 7, The Interplay of Humans-Machines-Automation
• Chapter 8, Automation – Dramatically Helping Avoid Human Intervention
• Chapter 9, Automation Can Build...