The use of simulation in the development of human factors guidelines for alarm systems

This paper describes a research program sponsored by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to address the human factors engineering (HFE) aspects of nuclear power plant alarm systems. The overall objective of the program is to develop HFE review guidance for advanced alarm systems. As part of this program, guidance was developed based on a broad review and analysis of technical and research literature. In the course of guidance development, aspects of alarm system design for which the technical basis was insufficient to support guidance development were identified. Experimental research is currently underway to address the highest priority topics: alarm processing and display characteristics. This paper provides an overview of our approach to guidance development and discusses the role of simulation in the development approach. Finally, the current simulator-based experiment is described to illustrate how the alarm system design features are being studied.