Man-machine supervision

Today's complexity of systems where man is involved has led to the development of more and more sophisticated information processing systems where decision making has become more and more difficult. The operator task has moved from operation to supervision and the production tool has become indissociable from its numerical instrumentation and control system. The integration of more and more numerous and sophisticated control indicators in the control room does not necessary fulfill the expectations of the operation team. It is preferable to develop cooperative information systems which are real situation understanding aids. The stake is not the automation of operators' cognitive tasks but the supply of a reasoning help. One of the challenges of interactive information systems is the selection, organisation and dynamical display of information. The efficiency of the whole man-machine system depends on the communication interface efficiency. This article presents the principles and specificities of man-machine supervision systems: 1 - principle: operator's role in control room, operator and automation, monitoring and diagnosis, characteristics of useful models for supervision; 2 - qualitative reasoning: origin, trends, evolutions; 3 - causal reasoning: causality, causal graph representation, causal and diagnostic graph; 4 - multi-points of view reasoning: multi flow modeling method, Sagace method; 5 - approximate reasoning: the symbolic numerical interface, the multi-criteria decision; 6 - example of application: supervision in a spent-fuel reprocessing facility. (J.S.)