A formal method for assessing the impact of task-based erroneous human behavior on system safety

Matthew L. Bolton, Kylie A. Molinaro and Adam M. Houser

Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 2019, vol. 188, issue C, 168-180

Abstract: Erroneous human behavior is often cited as a major factor to system failure. However, the complexity of the human-automation interaction can make it difficult for engineers to anticipate how erroneous human behavior can contribute to failures. In this work, we introduce a novel method for generating human errors based on the task-based taxonomy of erroneous human behavior. This allows erroneous acts to manifest as divergences from task models. We implement our method using the Enhanced Operator Function Model. We further show how the method can be used with formal system modeling and formal verification with model checking to prove whether or not potentially unanticipated erroneous behavior could contribute to system failures. We evaluate how our method scales and use it to evaluate three case studies: a radiation therapy machine, a pain medication pump, and an Apache helicopter. We discuss these results and explore options for future work.

Keywords: Human error; Erroneous human behavior; Task analysis; System safety; Formal methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832018304368
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reensy:v:188:y:2019:i:c:p:168-180

DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2019.03.010

Access Statistics for this article

Reliability Engineering and System Safety is currently edited by Carlos Guedes Soares

More articles in Reliability Engineering and System Safety from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().