A MODEL FOR PREDICTING THE RELIABILITY OF A MAN–MACHINE SYSTEM

A continuous-time Markov chain model, which considers the concept of human errors and recovery factors, is proposed for analysing the reliability of a man–machine system. This model can be applied to industrial systems such as the nuclear power plant, the NC machine cell, and the chemical plant. In order to show the application of the model and to validate its result, a computer animation program was written to simulate the control operation of a system. Some simulation experiments were conducted and the data were fed into the reliability model. The results show that the proposed model can perform well in comparison to the simulation output. In addition, some observations from the simulation experiments can also be applied to the design of a control system. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.