HMI-guard: A platform for detecting errors in human-machine interfaces

The HMI-Guard platform opens up a non-intrusive means of guarding against human errors that are introduced by Human-in-the-loop (HITL) interaction via the Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs). Motivation for this framework is partly in response to prevalence of legacy HMI devices (E.g. meters, rotary dials, gauges, alarm indicators, etc.) in industrial control room environments such as in nuclear power plants, aviation and automotive industry that must be manually monitored by trained operators. Alternatively, real-time monitoring of legacy HMI devices requires digital data acquisition which, may require expensive retrofits, design changes and cause production downtime. Moreover, severity of accidents caused due to operator error in manually reading these devices can be reduced if HITL errors are promptly discovered, trended and intervened upon.