The “Bird's Foot” integrated graphical interface for NPP operation

The traditional single-sensor-single indicator display is poorly matched to the cognitive abilities of operators, especially for large and complex systems. Our research aims to provide direct perception displays which will greatly reduce the cognitive load on the operator and allow the use of perceptual rather than cognitive mechanisms to support start-up, state diagnosis and fault management. In particular we describe a system of displays which supports movement by the operator up the abstraction hierarchy as the plant is brought on line. The aim is to minimise the cognitive load on the operator by providing information only at the level at which the operator is currently thinking, while at the same time showing how close the system is to operational limits.