A CSP TECHNIQUE-BASED INTERACTIVE CONTROL PANEL LAYOUT

An interactive and iterative control panel layout method based on the constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) technique was developed to gener ate an ergonomically sound panel design. This control panel layout met hod attempts to incorporate a variety of relevant ergonomic principles and design constraints, and generate an optimal or, at least, a 'sati sfactory' solution through an efficient search algorithm. The problem of seeking an ergonomically sound panel design should be viewed as a m ulti-criteria problem, and most of the design objectives should be und erstood as constraints. Hence, a CSP technique was employed in this st udy for dealing with the multi-constraints layout problem. The efficie nt search algorithm using 'preprocess' and 'look-ahead' procedures was developed to handle the vast amount of computational effort. In order to apply the CSP technique to the panel layout procedure, the ergonom ic principles such as spatial compatibility, frequency-of-use, importa nce, functional grouping, and sequence-of-use were formalized as CSP t erms. The effectiveness of the proposed panel layout method was evalua ted by example problems, and the results clearly showed that the gener ated layouts properly considered various ergonomic design principles.