Situation awareness

Situation awareness is the operator's perception of the system situation ( Wiki ).

Situation awareness is a key factor in preventing operational confusion

The means to indicate the system situation is by two special add-on:

A exception detector. This unit receives measurements from the sensors, converts them to information about the system situation, and sends the information to the second add-on
A display unit, receive the information from the exception detector and notifies the operators about the system situation. A special indicator may be used to highlight instances of exceptional situation (such as overheating).

Alarms are used to notify the operators about changes in the system situation.

Following the alarm, the operators might be distracted by other tasks or activities, resulting in situation confusion .