Diagnosis of Plant Failures from a Control Panel: A Comparison of Three Training Methods

Abstract Process control tasks typically require the operator to diagnose and rectify failures on the basis of parameters measured at different points in the plant and centrally displayed on a control panel. An investigation was carried out to discover what form of technical introduction would be most successful in training an operator accurately to recognize faults practised during training, and in addition provide a strategy enabling the trainee to seek out relevant information in order to diagnose unfamiliar faults Three groups of subjects were trained using an adaptive cumulative-part technique to recognize eight faults displayed on a simulated control panel. Each group received a different introduction to the plant: (i) the ‘ Theory ’ group were given a conventional description of the ‘ Plant ’ and its functions; (ii) the ‘ Rules ’ group in addition were taught a set of rules that would assist them in inferring failures from the panel array; (iii) the ‘ No Story ’ group underwent training without any...