D.D. Schmorrow et al. (Eds.): Augmented Cognition, HCII 2009, LNAI 5638, pp. 42–50, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 Designing a Control and Visualization System for Off-Highway Machinery According to the Adaptive Automation Paradigm Stefano Marzani 1 , Francesco Tesauri 1 , Luca Minin 1 , Roberto Montanari 1 , and Caterina Calefato 2 1 HMI Group, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, via Amendola 02, 42100 Reggio Emilia (Italy) 2 Department of Computer Science, University of Turin, C.so Svizzera 185, 10149, Turin (Italy) {Stefano.Marzani,Francesco.Tesauri,Luca.Minin, Roberto.Montanari}@unimore.it, Caterina.Calefato@di.unito.it Abstract. This paper aims at describing the requirements of an off-highway human-machine system able to recognize potential risky situations and conse- quently prevent them. The developed methodology is based on two techniques derived from the field of human factors studies, namely the Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) and the Function Allocation (FA), which have been integrated and revised to suit the specific domain of off-highway machinery. The para- digms of adaptive automation and persuasive technology will be followed in the design process. After the off-highway domain analysis a system aiming at im- proving operator and machine safety is presented. The information system ex- tends the human intelligence monitoring the stability of the machine. Keywords: Adaptive Automation, Collision, Function Allocation, Human- Machine Interaction, Hierarchical Task Analysis, Off-Highway Vehicles, Overun, Rollover, Runover, Safety, Tractors. 1 Introduction The complexity of on-board equipment for agricultural and off-highway machinery has dramatically grown during the last years. The increased number of functions and devices has led to a substantial modification in working procedures, the contrary of what has been seen in the automotive domain. Cars have been equipped with elec- tronic information- and/or safety-related systems, which have improved the reliability of the vehicles and the user comfort although this has not affected the essential nature of the driving task [1] [2]. On the contrary, the introduction of electronics in agricultural and off-highway machinery has led to a strong centralization of controls inside the vehicle cabin, bringing a significant modification in the way users must manage their working task. This modification has been especially strong in the agricultural field, where most of the tractor functions can be performed from inside the cabin. Moreover, the incoming