21st Century Workstations - Active Partners in Accomplishing Task Goals

As the new century starts early design efforts are underway for a new class of US Navy ships with design requirements to significantly reduce operational crew size and associated costs. The trend for crew optimization is made all the more difficult with increased mission demands and breadth of tasks to be accomplished. New weapons and sensors will increase the tactical options available to commanders, but significant changes in current design must be made for fewer personnel to handle the workload. Automated functions can have profound implications for the workstation design, increasing warfighter need for multi-tasking across automated systems. Workstation design trends that may be necessary to support this work environment are: increased visual workspace, features that focus on multi-tasking, and system monitoring of task progress with the ability for system assistance based on dynamic monitoring of task progress and monitoring of human state while at work. The workstation of the future becomes actively involved in assisting the human progress through multiple tasks. This is in stark comparison to the passive partnership between workstation and human today.