A detailed look at the Deck operations Course of Action Planner as the aircraft carrier “handler” would see it. Here, the operator has submitted to the planning algorithm priority rankings for four personnel groups, and desired schedules and priorities for individual aircraft. On the bottom edge of the image we see a pair of Deck Resource Timelines. Each of these contains five timelines showing the allocation of tasks to the four launch catapults and the landing strip. The upper half shows the current resource allocations; the bottom half shows the proposed allocation. This allows the user to quickly identify what changes have been made in the schedules. This convention is also used on the right-hand side of the screen in the Aircraft Schedule Panel. The ASP shows individual timelines of operation for all aircraft in the system. For each aircraft, we again show two timelines stacked on top of one another, and again, the current is on top, with the proposal on bottom. This allows users to make a quick visual pass over the data and review how the planner is suggesting the schedules be changed — or how changes in the dynamics of the system, due to failures or delays, have affected schedules.
Another important item is the multicolored diamond in the upper right area of the screen. This is the Disruption Visualization Tool, which displays relative changes in personnel group workload between the current and proposed schedules. Smaller, green triangles imply that this group will take less time to perform its task assignments in the proposed schedule. Larger, red triangles imply that more time is required. Note that, at this
time, the DVT shows workload as it is the main criterion that the scheduling algorithm optimizes. The planner attempts to minimize both overall mission duration (time to complete all tasks) and minimize the workload of individual personnel groups.
HUMANS IN THE LOOP: Human-Automation Collaboration Presents Possibilities Unattainable by Either Alone
21