An empirical study on the use of the rancor microworld simulator to support fullscope data collection

Lack of data is a major challenge in human reliability analysis (HRA). Accordingly, several institutes and researchers have tried to collect HRA data from different data sources, such as actual historical measurements, expert judgements, and simulator studies. While the most recent studies predominantly focus on collecting data using full-scope simulators with actual operators, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) now collects HRA data using the Rancor Microworld simulator, a simplified simulator, with student participants. Full-scope studies are known to pose intrinsic challenges for securing adequate data. This is due to many reasons, including the high cost of experiments and the necessity for cooperation with actual operators. INL aims to infer actual-operator data via a full-scope simulator using Microworld data and student subjects, as well as additional data perhaps missed in the full-scope research. As a first step toward achieving this goal, this paper proposes an experimental plan for investigating differences in human performance between individuals in two groups: 1) actual operators and 2) students using the Rancor Microworld simulator. A randomized factorial experiment design was developed with two independent variables: type of scenario and type of subject. Six human performance measurements—1) time, 2) error, 3) workload, 4) situational awareness, 5) attention patterns, and 6) number of manipulations—were selected. A couple scenarios and related procedures to be simulated by Rancor Microworld were then developed.