Module 1

Introduction to the subject

Human factors Engineering is a multidisciplinary field incorporating contributions from
psychology, engineering, biomechanics, mechanobiology, industrial design, physiology and
anthropometry. In essence it is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the
human body and its cognitive abilities. The two terms "human factors" and "ergonomics" are
essentially synonymous.
The International Ergonomics Association defines ergonomics or human factors as follows:
Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding
of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies
theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and
overall system performance. International Ergonomics Association
HFE is employed to fulfill the goals of occupational health and safety and productivity. It is
relevant in the design of such things as safe furniture and easy-to-use interfaces to machines
and equipment. Proper ergonomic design is necessary to prevent repetitive strain injuries and
other musculoskeletal disorders, which can develop over time and can lead to long-term
disability.
Human factors and ergonomics is concerned with the "fit" between the user, equipment and
their environments. It takes account of the user's capabilities and limitations in seeking to
ensure that tasks, functions, information and the environment suit each user.
To assess the fit between a person and the used technology, human factors specialists or
ergonomists consider the job (activity) being done and the demands on the user; the
equipment used (its size, shape, and how appropriate it is for the task), and the information
used (how it is presented, accessed, and changed). Ergonomics draws on many disciplines in
its study of humans and their environments, including anthropometry, biomechanics,
engineering, industrial design, information design, kinesiology, physiology, and psychology.

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Human machine interactions/systems

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common examples of human machine interactions/systems

A human-machine system is one in which a human operator is in some way reliant on, or
integrated with, a tool or machine. This can be something as simple as the use of a
woodworking tool, or something as complex as flying a remove-surveillance drone via
remote controls. The core concept is that the machine is in some way enhancing the abilities
of the human user. There are both practical examples in the real world and a large amount of
conceptual engineering ideas that fall under the heading of a human-machine system. Many
advanced systems are in use in the fields of space exploration, the military and law
enforcement.
1. One example of a commonly used human-machine system is a forklift that might be

used in a warehouse or loading dock. This is a machine that requires a human to

control it. In turn, the forklift is a machine that enhances the abilities of the human.
When working in tandem, this human-machine system allows a single person to lift
much more weight than he or she would normally be able to do without the machine.
2. Another common example of a human-machine system is the guidance, targeting and
navigational systems on a fighter jet. This system assists the pilot in flying the jet by
observing vehicle tolerances, maintaining subsystems so the pilot does not have to do
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so, and taking initiative in alerting the pilot to anomalous conditions. During combat,
the human-machine system can integrate the pilot's head motions with targeting
computers that, in some cases, allow a pilot to simply look at a target to direct
weapons fire in that direction. This type of interactive extension of a pilots abilities
and senses is a very advanced use of a human-machine system.
3. Aviation is an example of a human-machine system in which all of these
developments have occurred. Early work in aircraft systems focused on manual
control models of pilot performance. With increasing levels of automation, the pilot
shifted to a more supervisory role in which tasks such as planning and programming
the flight management computer became the predominant form of work.
4. Human power extender is an example of human-machine interaction via the transfer

of power and information signals A human's ability to perform physical tasks is

limited by physical strength, not by intelligence. We define extenders as a class of
robot manipulators worn by humans to augment human mechanical strength, while
the wearer's intellect remains the central control system for manipulating the extender.
Our research objective is to determine the ground rules for the design and control of
robotic systems worn by humans through the design, construction, and control of
several prototype experimental direct-drive/nondirect-drive multi-degree-of-freedom
hydraulic/electric extenders. The design of extenders is different from the design of
conventional robots because the extender interfaces with the human on a physical
level. Two sets of force sensors measure the forces imposed on the extender by the
human and by the environment (i.e., the load). The extender's compliances in
response to such contact forces were designed by selecting appropriate force
compensators.
5. SCADA: SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) is a system operating
with coded signals over communication channels so as to provide control of remote
equipment (using typically one communication channel per remote station). The
supervisory system may be combined with a data acquisition system by adding the
use of coded signals over communication channels to acquire information about the
status of the remote equipment for display or for recording functions. [1] It is a type of
industrial control system (ICS). Industrial control systems are computer-controlled
systems that monitor and control industrial processes that exist in the physical world.
SCADA systems historically distinguish themselves from other ICS systems by being
large-scale processes that can include multiple sites, and large distances. HMI is
usually linked to the SCADA system's databases and software programs, to provide
trending, diagnostic data, and management information such as scheduled
maintenance procedures, logistic information, detailed schematics for a particular
sensor or machine, and expert-system troubleshooting guides.
The HMI system usually presents the information to the operating personnel
graphically, in the form of a mimic diagram. This means that the operator can see a
schematic representation of the plant being controlled. For example, a picture of a
pump connected to a pipe can show the operator that the pump is running and how
much fluid it is pumping through the pipe at the moment. The operator can then
switch the pump off. The HMI software will show the flow rate of the fluid in the pipe
decrease in real time. Mimic diagrams may consist of line graphics and schematic
symbols to represent process elements, or may consist of digital photographs of the
process equipment overlain with animated symbols.

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Handle positioning on doors

The placement of a handle on a door is dependent on the size of the door. Most doors
for home installation are 80 inches tall, and door handles are generally placed on the
door three feet from the floor. However, there are door handle height regulations
when it comes to accessibility for disabled persons, and these regulations are covered
by the International Building Code (IBC), as well as federal, state, and local code
standards.
Federal Regulations

The federal standards for doors and door hardware are found in several sets of codes
concerning building design and accessibility. The General Services Administration,
the Department of Defense, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and
the U.S. Postal Service all set forth regulations concerning door handle height, and all
are based on standards from the American National Standards Institute in their
accessibility guidelines from 1961. These formed the basis for the Architectural
Barriers Act (1968), the Rehabilitation Act (1973), the Uniform Federal Accessibility
Standards (1984), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990). These federal
regulations for door handle height state that door handles must be at least 48 inches
from the floor level. They must also be easy to operate with one hand without a tight
grasp or a twisting of the wrist. Acceptable types of handles include U-shaped, pushtype, and lever-type handles or mechanisms.

IBC Regulations

Section 1003.3 of the IBC regulations (General Means of Egress) addresses door
handle height ( Sub-section 1003.3.1.1.1 states that any projection into a doorway,
hallway or any other means of access higher than 34 inches may be 4 inches from the
wall of such an access. This includes push-handle types of door handles. This door
handle height regulation covers all building types and concurs with ADA
requirements for wheelchair accessibility. These requirements allow a person in a
wheelchair to pass through the door when it is open without the handle obstructing
their access.

United Nations Recommendations

The United Nations is another entity that concerns itself with door accessibility in the
context of considering those with disabilities. Their Department of Economic and
Social Affairs website provides a design manual for a barrier-free environment from
2004. Chapter II, Section 8 of this manual gives recommended dimensions for doors,
including door handle height. Subsection 3.4 (Manual Door Hardware) states that
door handles should be at a minimum height of between 0.9 and 1.0 meters from the
floor surface to provide a comfortable way for wheelchair users to open a door.
Although the information in this manual is categorized as recommendations and
guidelines, these dimensions for door handles reflect existing height regulations for
door handles, including technical standards established by the International Code
Council (ICC) and American National Standards Institute (ANSI), under The
ICC/ANSI standard A117.1 titled Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities.

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The standard height for door handles on a typical 80-inch tall, household door is 36 inches.
Why this is standard is not certain. The most likely explanation is that, as we began to mass
produce doors, the center of most middle rails in the typical drop paneled door was 36 inches
from the bottom of the door. This is how it is still measured today, with the tape measure
hooked under the corner of the door to a height 36 inches up.
Backset and Boring

While the 36-inch height is the center line for standard doorknobs, it is not the only
consideration. The backset, or spacing from the edge of the door, is crucial to the
operation of the knob. This measurement varies, with most mass-produced knobs
being adjustable from a backset of 2 and 1/8 inches to 2 and 3/4 inches, which are the
two most common backsets. Knob holes are usually 2 and 1/4 inches in diameter with
the edge bore for the striker being 1 inch in diameter.

Placing of alphabet keys on computer key board

There are a number of different arrangements of alphabetic, numeric, and punctuation

symbols on keys. These different keyboard layouts arise mainly because different
people need easy access to different symbols, either because they are inputting text in
different languages, or because they need a specialized layout for mathematics,
accounting, computer programming, or other purposes. The United States keyboard
layout is used as default in the currently most popular operating systems: Windows,
Mac OS X and Linux. The common QWERTY-based layout was designed early in
the era of mechanical typewriters, so its ergonomics were compromised to allow for
the mechanical limitations of the typewriter.
The keys on a Qwerty keyboard are not arranged alphabetically because the creator of
the Qwerty keyboard designed it where the most used keys were on the home row or
within easy reach of the fingers. The least used letters, like Q, X, and Z, are put at the
corners of the keyboard, where the fingers take the most effort to reach. Thus, the
Qwerty keyboard was arranged for easier typing.Before computers in olden days most
of them used Type machinesso they designed i the same face..The keys Q,W,E,R,T
and in some cases Y are put there because when the computer/keypad were invented
they were very slow. Many people would type so fast the computers jammed. So they
made the keypad with the 5/6 most used letters on the left to slow right-handed people
[most people] down and stop the computers freezing up.Almost, but not quite.It
wasn't early computers freezing up, it was mechanical typewriters.Every key was
linked by rods and levers to an arm with a letter at the end of it. Pushing the key
would cause the arm to tilt forward and make an imprint on the paper.If the keys you
pushed in thight sequence would activate two adjacent arms they ran a high risk of
getting entangled.What the QWERTY keyboard did was to put rarely used letters in
between the more commonly used letters and thereby reducing risk of the typing arms
jamming.
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As the letter-keys were attached to levers that needed to move freely, inventor Christopher
Sholes developed the QWERTY layout to reduce the likelihood of jamming. With the advent
of computers, lever jams are no longer an issue, but nevertheless, QWERTY layouts were
adopted for electronic keyboards because they were widely used. Alternative layouts such as
the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard are not in widespread use.
The QWERTZ layout is widely used in Germany and much of Central Europe. The main
difference between it and QWERTY is that Y and Z are swapped, and most special characters
such as brackets are replaced by diacritical characters.

Definition of HF
Definition by International Ergonomics Association : Human factors or ergonomics is the
scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and
other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and
methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.
Ergonomists contribute to the design and evaluation of tasks, jobs, products, environments
and systems in order to make them compatible with the needs, abilities and limitations of
people.
Definition by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society : Human Factors is concerned
with the application of what we know about people, their abilities, characteristics, and
limitations to the design of equipment they use, environments in which they function, and
jobs they perform

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