KEY-06: Joyful automation

Keynote address by Ruediger Theis (Wiesemann & Theis, Germany)

As "automators" we pursue the goal of ensuring predictable processes and giving the operator absolute control over the equipment. Naturally the automator is overjoyed when he or she succeeds in constructing a new piece of equipment along the above lines. But does this apply as well to the operator of the equipment? Is the rugged predictability not simply too boring over the long run? Is it enough to counter the boredom by making use of remote control to monitor many systems at a time from a single master display? To understand how the division of work is optimally accomplished between man and an automated system, we need to know not only the possibilities of the machines, but also how people tick. Much discussion is devoted to the limitations and mistakes made by people, but too little to the question of what actually makes us happy as human beings. As engineers we need here systematic criteria for developing a piece of equipment or system that also gives joy to the operator. Recent research on the brain is providing the first clues to the human happiness mechanisms. One ingredient seems also to be the element of surprise. So allow yourself to be surprised about what specific possibilities for "joyful automation" have occurred to the author.