Control Rooms and Command Centres
FOI conducts research into the development of control rooms and command centres in order to be able to support the future's growing needs for coordinated command and control. With its expertise in this area of research, FOI is able to take account of the capability profile and technology needs of the individual operator as well as the operator position itself and associated team questions. In addition FOI conducts risk and vulnerability analyses relating to strategic decisions concerning the location and design of, for example, coordinated command and control centres. FOI can provide an overall perspective on the management of dynamic environments.
FOI works on different types of command centres and control rooms, for example control centres for emergency and crisis management operations, security and surveillance centres, ATC and other traffic control centres.
FOI applies a multidisciplinary approach in order to manage the complex issues involved in the interaction between man, technology and organisation that characterise today's control rooms and command centres.
FOI possesses expertise and experience in fields ranging from method and model development to special competence in Man System Interaction, technology development and threat/risk and vulnerability analysis.
Specific areas:
- Man Machine Interaction (MSI), human factors and complexity as well as improvisation.
- Simulation based analysis and evaluation of management and coordination capabilities in command and control environments.
- Risk and incident analysis from a security perspective.
- The design of control centres including:
- Command and control/method of working (e.g. flexible organisations, planning and delegation)
- physical design (e.g. number of rooms as well as room design and function)
- technical aids (e.g. decision support systems, presentation screens)
- working environment and ergonomics
- confidentiality issues
- perimeter protection and
- change management.
- Physical protection (e.g. evaluation and design).
- Threat/risk and vulnerability analysis (e.g. description of threat picture, scenarios, response strategies).
- Financial assessment coupled with risk and response analyses
FOI can offer in this area:
- R&D projects (e.g. design of operator positions, concept development
- decision support systems, data fusion).
- studies and assessments (e.g. ergonomic assessments, supervisory support, international studies)
- direct support (e.g. needs analysis, requirements analysis, user-centred design, risk and vulnerability analyses, overall assessments).
FOI's clients in this field include, for example, the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, the Swedish Armed Forces and the Greater Stockholm Fire Brigade.