Transitioning to Autonomy: The Psychology of Human Supervisory Control

Whenever automation is introduced to control real-time activities or processes, the role of the human changes from being a manual controller to being a supervisory controller. Whether the activity is the control of vehicles industrial processes, or is in defence, healthcare, or elsewhere, the work performed by the people who are expected to monitor and supervise the automation places new demands on their attention, perception and cognition. Those demands can be significant and challenging and this book aims to address that.

Transitioning to Autonomy: The Psychology of Human Supervisory Control focuses on the transition period when automation is being introduced, and the human needs to learn and develop the competence to perform their new role effectively. The first Part extracts general lessons from the author’s experience taking ownership of a new car which, under certain circumstances, was capable of driving autonomously. Part 2 explores the psychology behind the lessons extracted in Part 1 and proposes a comprehensive model of human supervisory control. The final Part focuses on six principal risks associated with human supervisory control and examines how the expectation that people will be proactive in monitoring for threats to the automation’s performance is often relied on as a defence, or ＂Barrier＂, against serious adverse events. The core benefit for the reader is a deeper understanding of what it takes, cognitively, emotionally, and organisationally, to ensure safe and effective human oversight in the age of automation. It aims to give the reader the lowdown on delivering safer systems.

The book is for managers, engineers, safety professionals and those from other technical disciplines who have responsibility for the design, development and/or assurance of products that automate the control of real-time activities; it’s for regulators and others responsible for setting policy and ensuring products automating real-time activities are safe; and it’s for Human Factors and other professionals who need to understand and develop competence in aspects of the psychology associated with automated systems.

Ron McLeod holds an Honours degree in Psychology, an MSc in Ergonomics and a Ph.D. in Engineering and Applied Science and has spent more than 40 years as a Human Factors specialist working primarily in safety critical and high hazard industries.

Ron has been influential helping industry learn, develop, and apply best practice in Human Factors in the management of major hazards. As well as his 2015 book, ’Designing for Human reliability: Human Factors Engineering in the Oil, Gas and Process Industries’, Ron has published more than 30 papers in the technical and scientific press in his own name, as well as contributing to numerous industry guides and best practices produced by a variety of professional and industry bodies. He has taken an active, and often a leadership, role in organisations including the International Oil and Gas Producer’s Association (IOGP), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the UK’s Process Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC), the Energy Institute (EI), the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF) and the Centre for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS).

Ron holds a position as Honorary Professor of Engineering Psychology at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and has been Visiting Professor of Human Factors at Loughborough University, School of Design. He is a Fellow, and has been a Trustee and Member of Council, of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors (CIEHF) and has served as a member of a peer review panel for the US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Ron was the project lead and principal author for three CIEHF White Papers, including the 2022 publication ＂Human Factors in Highly Automated Systems＂.

In 2020, Ron was awarded the CIEHF’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2022 he was made a Fellow of the International Ergonomics Association in recognition of his ＂..outstanding and sustained performance in the field of ergonomics and human factors at an international level...＂. He retired from full-time working in 2022, but remains active lecturing and writing, when he is not playing guitar, golf, bridge or cycling.