Amusement Ride Control and Operating Procedure - Literature Review

13 Pages·2002·0.41 MB·English

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Amusement Ride Controls and Operating
Procedures Literature Reviert

HSL/L998M
Project Lowder: Alan Jackson
Alan Jackson MSc, M Erg S, Eur Erg.

Human Factors Group

HEALTH & SAFETY
LABORATORY
Summary

Objectives

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oy

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‘To review published research papers relating, to the design of anwusement ride
‘control panels ard ride aperacing procedtutes,

To review guidance on the design af amusemeat tide controt panels aud the
operation of armusement ride

To identify axcstiny standards which may be discedy or indectly reated tr
the Cesign of amurenisia ide vontrot panels and tide operating procedues,

Main Findings

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wil)

‘There appears to be a lack of -nformatlen on comtral panel and aperating
procedure design whieh is diectly aimed at the amusement industey,

‘Current designs are diotaled by a parks "house style” o> individual white.

Uibere ae sever sources of relevant inlirmstion.on vantrol pane] and
operating procedure design iusluting machinery standards which could bx
applied to the crousement industry,

There is anced tw determine the eucent state of control panel and operating
procedure designs in the amusement industry to identity voomon errors.

‘These is a need to define the amusement cide operators tark ervitonment 10
identify the corect ergonomics principles to be applied

There iv a need for guidance which helps amusconent ride desiguers and
Operutors identity the relevant sourcen 0! information end apply the
eryonorties principles,

‘Tharsis a need tor guidance which helps HSE ingpectars ta eomreety identi ly
problems duing 1outine inspestions and invilert investigations,
Contents

INTRODUCTION

2. ERGONOMICS TEXTS,

2.1 Displays & controls
2.2 Automation se :
2.3 Operating procedures & human error reduction
STANDARDS

HSE PUBLICATIONS

4.1 Guidance notes

4.2 Information Sheets

4.3 Video

3. INTERNET

DISCUSSION
CONCLUSIONS.
REFERENCES
1. INTRODUCTION

fis not uncommon for incidents on armusentent tse rhe att-buted to operator exo, bul
how seasy of Ihese mre veally human error ad how many are aatually a result of poor
design? Beay of the modern rides have complicated contol. sysloms with tullilevel safety
interlocks, computer vontral and varying leve's of alomutien. The controt panels, the
Snterfaze hereon the operator und the ride, range fram simple two ar three button boxes to
‘mubi-panel consoles with visual display units (VDUs), a mullude of ingurt devices and
‘information displays. Bowever, a cumro] panet dacs not need to be complicnied ‘o induce
‘human euro. Selection of te wrong type of button can lel fo the wrong one being presced
jnam emergency situation og, using a large, red, mushroom head hatin which locks in
(Gametimes lahellel STOP) to start the ride. Panels may be tex simple; « lack of informetion
fordhack may lead Lo a dangcrous sintation geing uncetected, 1 is nel oly the design of the
panels whicl may be at Gull. a poorly strucwired operating provedu: may increase the
likelihood ef human error. A peor operating procedure may work aginst a well designed
contro] panel oF may be che result of coping with « badly desigeed eamina” ped,

Digplays and controls engonominy i not a new concept and many of the basic primiphes
appear in text bowks. These principles have heen incorporated in Standards alyo, Human
caror eduction und the design of operating procedures is well documented too, How much
‘of this information is readily available to designers of amusement riées and their awocisted
conttol systems? This report will attempt to identify what relevant infottantion is available
sand how accessible itis to the cmuservant indastiy.

2. ERGONOMICS TEXTS
24 Displays & controls

Exgonornics prices for the design of contro! panels cen be found in atest general
cengomomics texts, Applied ergonomics hendbcok (Gales, 1987) has chapters onthe design of
displays, the design ef eortrolsand the layourof panels and machines, Principles. such ws
{information flow loops, contol display relaclonships, fanctional grouping, link analysts and
systems ergonomics are alsa discusscd, Othcr sources of information on these topics ate
Fung th: task tothe man (Grandjean, 1981, Human factors in engineering ai design
‘(MeCormics & Sanders, 1982), Although some practical examples ate yiven, mush of the
information i presented for eegonomist.

22 Automation

Parasuxaman & Riley (1997) discusses the use, misuse, disuse and abuse of swommated
systems. In che iurodution they slate "A prevalent assumptioa sbant aulornation is that ic
resides ia rannival machines that place lunnans, a view made popular by Chaplin in bis
movie Modem ‘limes. However, it has become evidewt thal aulomution does not supplant
lbuman activity; rales, it changes the nulure of the work that sumans do, often in ways
toninfended and unanticipated by the designers of automation” They go on to define
rnutomation as “the exeoution by anachine ayent (unaully 9 computer) of @ function thal wes

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previously carried out by a human.” However, sxomnation does nat alunys completely
replace the human, Sheridan (1980) idensfied 10 levels of automation,

{ip often considered thatthe intraduetion of automation will reduce the chance of human
crror by reducing the operators worklead or taking him out ofthe system allogetber. In
systems whore dhe hiaumn is veined ae « component, there are several facts which affect
bhow they interact with the automated fonctions. Muir (1988) atgued that individuala trast for
‘machines ean be affected by ths same faotors thet iufhaence ust between individuals,
People trast others if they are 1cliable auf honest but they lose trust when they axe Jet down
‘or botrayed and the subsequent redeveiopment of trust takes some time. In het experiments,
she found thata subjective measure of ‘ust in an automated aid comelated with ts usage by
the subjects. n the worst cases a lack af iat of the aulomated systein nay result i the
‘operator bypassing or disabling tho mwomnation, Conversely, sxcessive trust cau Teal
operators to rely uncriticaliy on automation wahout rooogetsng its limitations, oF fil £9
‘monitor the antomations beliaviowr. IL has also been poinial out that reliance on the
decisions of antemation can make hemans less allentive to contradictory sources of evitence
+ Mosier & Skitka (1999),

‘There is a temptaion to use automated systems la rernove human ator but withouta clear
understanding ofthe human factors. assoctated with the use of automated systems one could
simply repluce operator error with designer erro.

2.3 Operating procedures & human arror reduetion

‘The basic techniques which underfic the design of opecnling. procedures and hurman crror
reduction use some form of task analysis, Task analysis can he defined as the study of what
fan operator (or team of operators) is required to do, in terns of actions and ‘or eagsitive
processes, to achieve a system goal (Kiewan & Ainwwonth, 1992), "There are many task
analysis techniques, Kirwan & Ainsywomh list 25, some of which way be used diretly inthe
‘assessment of amuscment side contsol md operating procedures

Human Retsbility Assessment (HR A) techniques are used to predist human performance in
Iiigh risk industries. The'r aim ix to determine the risky inherontin such indusiies due to
‘human error and the benefits in tems of isk reduction by having hursau «yperalors in tbe
system Kirwan (1996) published a series of tev papars which reviewed the validity of
thice HRA fecaniques. The pupers conecatrated on the peedietion of Shuman Error
Probabilities (HEP), HEP estimation may be a aselid technique in. designing the more
canplox amusement ride control systems hut there ae some problems, HIRA techniques
generally use cither information ina database of industrial incidaats with expel juLgerent
‘or they may rely solely eu expert apinion. One aypeot shared by most HRA tecbaiques is that
they start with adetailed task analysis, As disensted above, task analysis could be a very
valuable tool in tie design of contol panels and operating procedures an amusement rides
However, extending this to fall HRA may he inapprapeiate as most of the techniques have
Joon devsteped tor highly complex systems such as those lowmd in nuclear processing planks
ana! Jurge chemiow installations, As such the majority of datnbaxe information and expert
copinon is focused in these areas. There ure some principles used in (IRA which may be
ulapeed Lor the design of amusement ride control systems und operating proceduses such us

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Forformance Shaping Factors (PSF), Io HICA, PSF ate used to support modification of the
basie error probability in quantitative analysis, In the sbwonce of basic quantitative dota Jae
HRA in the amsement industry, PSF may be used ir, qualitative ussessrucnt ofa particule
design. Same of ths comcaon factors are: Man muchine imerfave /focdbacks pruccdures:
luaining; time pressure, sitess or workload, teamwark problems,

3. STANDARDS.

‘Thoze area few countries whn have slandauds for amusement tides. Australia has a slandard
AS 3533-1988 "Amusement ridos aed devices" and specific references to amuyement rides in
regulations as diverse a construction regulations and liting equipmetragulanions. kt
Enrope the longest cstadlished standard is DIN4I 12 in Germany. There iy no. British
standard for amusement deviees, Work isin progrevs on a. Zuropen stondand for amusement
devices butthere is no Buropean Directive associated wih i, The machinery directive
specifically excludes amusement rides although it does address some relevant ergoniotn
principles. A result of the inclusion of ergoaomies principles in European Dieeetives ace
Standards which now directly addvess ergonomics design, mast nowadly the aeriew on saloty
of machiaery.

BS EN £94.1:1997 "Safsty of machinery -Prgpnomicsrequitements forthe design of
splay and contol actuators, Part |. general principles for hunan interactions with displays
and voutrot actutor sets oot many ofthe has ergonomics principles wih, cxainpes of
their application, Although not directly addressing. amusement ide desigs, the principles
are directly applicable. The standard states that "Kowledgo of ergonomics prinviplosts the
basis fora succes implementation ofa harms = machine sys." The systems approach
‘adopted as iris recognised tht "an important err to conser i the degree to which the
Ihuman is needed in the system ia ander to accuraplish the givon task.” Some of tho
Principles included inthe standard are: Principle af function allocation - should i be done by
man ot macsine? Principe of graaping «locating relnleé displays and conttlsin the same
area, Principle of information avallality- information about the tate of the system should
be reatily avellable atthe request ofthe epertor without the nood to interfere with other
activities, Conformity with user expectations - population stewectypos ad other user
expoctitions of how the humm ~ machine imerface operate, Hiniple of ecnsistncy =
Similac party of he una ~ machine interface shonld operate ia a consistent manner. Other
_izeipls ave presented along with information on human infarmation processing.

BS EN 894-2:1997 "Safety of machinery - Ergmoncies kquivcauents for Coe design of |
display and contro! acauatars, Part 2. Displays” not only covers visual displays bur includes
ergonomics guidaace on auditory and tactile displays also, The comprehensive yet concise
data in the standard would assist greatly in the design of displays,

8 FN 61310-1:1995 IC 1310-1:1995 "Safety of machinery - “lication, zarking and
ctuation, Part. requitements fbr visual. acdrory and tact sigaals" ypccifies asystem of
ceclours, sulely signs, markings and other warnings, inlended for use forthe indication of
hazardous situstions, and hea th hezards aad for meeting certain emergencies. It also
specifies vagys af coding visual, auditory and wotile signals for indicating and actuating

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devices in order to facilitace the safe use and monitoring af the machinery. It acknowledges
that sulety related information shoult be presented using means which ane compatible with
the capabilities of the operators and / or exposed persons. BS EN 61310-2:1995 Tc.
1310-2:1995 "Safety of machinery «Indication, mashing und actuation, Part 2. requirements
for marking” stulew'thar “machinery shall bear all pxeckings witich are unnccessary for its
‘unamig:o:s identification and for its safe ave. Markings related to mecharical hazaxds,
{uid power harards and clecical tywards are dealt with, An importut suc, which is
directly relovanc to sauisement ridas, is thal texture information should be in the
Jangnage(s) ofthe eowntry in which she waachinc isto be used and may be, a tbe uscrs
equa, in the language(s) understood by the operators and exposed persons, Its enmmian,
for foreign “ides to tour the UK with signage in thoi native language:

To help desiyners in the reduotion of risks associated with misinterpcetatin of visual aud
auditory danger signals, BS EN 981:1997 "Safety of machinery - Systern of acditory and
vvisuel danger and information signals" specifies a system for signals which takes into
account the difforent depres of urgency. The standard oontains tables which sct ou the
mwssage categories, types of signal and their associated meacings. Such standetdisation of
signals tswuld nunid confusion of meaning for apetators and publi ragacdess of whieb ride
or park they were on,

Further guidonee on signals can be found in BS EN 842-1996 "Safety of machinery - Visual
sdunger signals - General requirements, design and testing," This standard appears tbe less
detasled than sore of the others but itis still a good basie guide,

‘Guidance specific to auditory signals is given ln RS EN 457:1992 “Safety of machinery -
Auditory danger signals - General requirements, design and testing," However,

docs not apply ta verbal danger wamings eg. shouts, loudspeaker announcements, The
section on tes! mclbouls contains a fot of technical detail relating te acoustic measurements
and "he esleulation of effeotive musked threshold, The annex Lo this stoncard contains
‘worked examples of the applied design principles

Amos! uli emusement ride control sysenrs will include an emergency stop fnition, ISS EN
418:1992 "Safety of machinery. Fmengency stop ecuipment, funetioual aspects -Principics
for design” giver guidance which could be used fo standardise the appearance and the
fiction of conergemey s21p cuntroly on all rides in all locations, Undsr gesoral requirements
itis stated that "Ihe emergeney stop function shall be available anc oeratioal ul all nes,
requniless of the operating minde.” An important issue covered is that “the emergency sta
equipment shall neither he use! as.an sltemative to proper saleguerding measiues tor akan
sakemive for automatic safety devives, ba it may be used as a backup meanure." This
sugges that the buna operator should not be allocated the emergeney slop funtion as a
‘matter of vourse bul they should have the option to invoke the emergency stop funeticn us a
‘backup te the automated system, ‘This mises some of the issues discussed in the section an
automation, However, some allowance for buman interversion is made asi is stad tha,
“*rasetting the control device chal not by Fclf emvse a scstact command." Stencardisaton of
the appearance uf the emergeuey slop aclu is dealt within tke section on shape, coismr
and arangement 0? emergency stop actustors, Alkough soveralaltemtives for te wetuators
fen the standin is very precise about the colour of such uotuators, "The emergency

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stop actuators shut be coloured red. As fac asa backgroutnl exists behind the actuator eal as
far ws it is practicable, it shal. be coloured yellow,"

4 HSE PUBLICATIONS
44 Guidance notes

‘Toe mic guidance for fhiegrounds and amusement packs has recently undergone a major
revision aad has been published as. HSG75, Fairgrocnes and Amusement Parks Guidance
‘on sal: practice (1997), The guidance lor designers sales that: "Any limitations for sue
‘operation nee! to be specified in the operations manual,” This information is essential whoa
designing wafe operating procedwes. la discussing design seview, the guidance wars of
incomplotouss até gives the examples "no attention 19 caatrol systems oF pussonger
Containment systems" and false ussumaptions such as "a software control system will fail
safe," Appendix 2 of the guidance suggests some "principles of designing for safety" but
these are mechurical solutions whiek do rot consider the human inputs and sutputs in a
control system, The guidance identifies control aystems as auseasential part of she annul
thorough craisation with funetional testing ofall safety ctitieal inputs and outputs but does
not speciffcally say whother the inputs ae outputs are fom a machine or human. Daily
checks on a ride are listed uy one of the responsibiiies of the vide eomtroller, One of the
ily checks fic isa trial eun to check that safety controls, including communication
syslems eperate effectively. Again it is ncither stated nor impliod tat the fuman is to be
chedkod 2s a oxunponent in the system. The sections on "sale operation by operators" Gad
"supervision by atfondants" address some lames factors isues but ina very general and
sometimes vague manner, The lis of "useful eadiag" materia atthe end of the guide does
not oortain any eryimomics texts. The only ergonomics ference ia the "Thuills Not Spills"
‘video produed by HSE which io "a yuide to the orgonotaics oC pumenger containment

HSB also publish 12 guidance notes inthe plant and machinery series titled “safe operation
of passenger carrying umusement devices." The [ull ist is given in te acferance section of
this zezort. The information given in these guidance notes an the safe operation ofthe
partiouiar ride to which the note applies variew from ride 10 ride. Mowever, there area few
‘commen points raised such ax: A safe system of work should be inetivuled by ride operators
and attendants, the operator should detemeame the number of stendants requieed lo operate
the fide safely; operators and attendan's sould reecive suitable ‘aining, Details ove given a
particular risks assoviated wilh paticular rides,

4.2 Information Shaots

To supplement their guidarce notes, IIS: publish fee infomation sheets, One example is
‘NISM8M2 "Safe accens lo jovenile: chas-quplaues and Sioilur rides", This sheet touches um

operating provedures.as it discusses the level of supervision by ride operators and wteadants,
However, no information sheets were found which directly address camtol punt and

opetating procedure design. The infcrmation sheets tend ta taekle even more specific is
Gran the guidance notes,
43° Video

HSE produced the “Thrills Not Spills" video which isa guide tothe ergoaomics of passenger
‘vootainment, Altaough safe containment of passengers :2 an important consideration in che
‘operation of amusement rides, the video does not dizectly address operating, procedues

5. INTERNET

‘Tye amount of information available on the internet is overwhelming and ous can spend a lot
‘of time sorting the relevant information from the imelevam. However, selective searches
produced alist of 43 anuserent industry companies and. erganisations
(Onnp:/fusers.sgi.new~eolloestia_ind jun} with inks to their web panes. One of those listed
‘was Bitket inginecring Ine. (hiup:/“wwne birket conv) who manufiesure rd conteol systems,
On their web site they publish technical nolew relating to conttul systems and their
eomponents

{In tochnical note "Concemning Frequensy of Operation in rterlock Design"

(hite:/vow hirket com/technotes/interlocks.html} itis stated that "interlocks are designed
into a system as a dogree of protection agniust harm resulting fron events such as equipment
failve, human etrer and unusual cireuerslances " Bieket recognise that invelocks auly oflee
‘degree of protection asin th saune unite they say "Interlecks are never a substitute fer
operator training or an intrinsically safe des-gn.” They also ruse the issae of bypassing
interlocks and suggest thal frequercy of operacion, cycling and pre-operation test prscedires
need ta he considered in control aysitm desige in order o cope with such negative hamaa
intervention. They take this concept further in technieal nots "Safety Imerlocks Not Always.
Good Idea" (hutp/wsw-hirket.comtochnotestmpinteriockshim) by suggesting that han
reliance on imerlocks or # misunderstardiyg of what function an interlock serves by the
‘operator can encourage human behavions which ultimately leads to an cient atbibuted to
suman ert, Interlocks should not replace safety poneedures and operator tiaiting, In a
perely =ngincering approach, the situation where interlocks ate protected by interlocks ean
arise. A cotabinalion of engineering and uryouornics cum lead to a safer and more productive
system design. As Birkel arc an American compeny they are overily awaze of com pat
liabitty issues and. suggest tla there isa tendency 10 lebilig-proaf machines with warning
labels. However, they alse suggest that one con net depend upon people ts read labels and
even if they do, it may lead to an overload of information and warnings that ate not followed.

Bitket Zngineering were contacted by F-Mail fo get their view on the eutrant industry
practices in contro] panel design, Their ceply stated that larger parks determined or greatly
in.luenced the tayoul of contol panels whilst smaller parks left tell upto the eupplier, As
For sandardisation of displays and controls layout and design, inthe USA, the slandards vary
from one lamily of pavks to another with Disney being seen asthe leaders, Asin sustomners
fend to accept whatever the Americans use, Bickct have nol done much work in Europe bul
they seem to think thal TU infinenoc the way thingy are donc. As for the components used
in their designs, operator functions are deult wth wsing physical switches snd slluminated
jndicators whilst Maintenance functions use x graphical louch sercen or Windows based PC.

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6 DISCUSSION

‘Much of th ergonomics infoemation required to design effective amusement ride conc!
panels anid opereting procedures is readily available in some form, Very itis, any,
‘formation. is aimed directly at the amusement industry or sayone who is uot already aware
of the ergonomics :ssues, The ergoanmics text buoks serve as a good reletence for those with
ergenomics taining. (t would be wieascnable to consider these a3 a teary made guide for
esigners, manufacturers wnd opciators of amusement eldes, Te history of standards in che
‘4nusecment industry hus resulted in am aa foe volumtary system, Amusethét davices are
specifically excluded fiom Uke European machinery directive although many of the
Mochinery standards address the same regororsivs issues, a8 detsiled above, and may be
diretly applied to amusement devices, Lloweves, the politics ate sic thal ide designers,
manufacterers. and operators arc uolikely lp tum to these strands. Tlowever, the Health and.
Safely Fxecutive continues to encourage the fairgraunds industy, where appropriate and
Ducticable, to adopt principles and practices of European Standards produce! under the
Machinery dizetive

‘A.commmon inmue caised in mest of the txts and undards is that the context in whieh the
‘goonies principles and veehmiques are to be applied needy lo be defined, Suitably detailed
efintions of the amusement ride aperstors task envieunmnent do nat appear to exist. This
can be overcome by using standard task analysis techniques which axe well documented. It
‘would alw be usefil wo delennine the curceat state of amusement ride contral pavel desigits
and operating procedures in order to identify conan exons, Again, many slanderd
crgonuinics techniques are readily available and well documented to wchieve this, Once thi
infonmation was available, it would be possibic te identify existing infeemtation which could
be used to solve existing problems und ald future designs aud identily the teas where
infomation may be tacking. t would be unpredustive to duplicate inforination whiel
already exisls elewhere and so any guidanee forthe arwusement industry should :dent-fy
cosising sourexs and then show how they can be applied to the industty. The curren. HSE
auidanse does not diceelly address these issues, I does peovide for factional testing of
contro! systems ia the annual thorough examination bul does. net specifically mentien human
fuactions. The thorough exaraination isthe amusewent ride equivolent of the car MOT test
sp itis questionable if Une aman input should be part of sis test as he cas diver fs nat
tested in the MOT. IL is suggested that Zuther HSE guidance needs ta provided on the
‘ergonomics issues associated with tide conto! puncl design and aperating proeedures. Not
ony wonld this help the industey to get it right at the design stage ie. before it goes wrong, i
woukl ss hela HSE inspectors to comecly diagnos the problema when things have gone
serone,

7. CONCLUSIONS:

{There appears to be a lack of information on vonttol panel. and opecating
procedure design which is direc)y aimed at the amusement industry

i) Current designs are dictated by a purks "house style” of individual whien

7