An operator assistance control system for skill enhancement and safety assurance in cascade tank systems

This paper addresses the design of an assistance control system that enables safe and flexible operation while facilitating operator upskilling. A key factor in upskilling is ensuring operators have repeated opportunities to engage in control actions. To this end, we design an assistance system that reduces intervention frequency and promotes operator discretion. We particularly focus on designing a human assistance system for water-level control in a tank system. Then, we characterize the set of admissible control actions for the human operator to develop assistance control logic that ensures the safety of the overall system. Finally, we demonstrate water-level control using the proposed assistance control logic. The results verify that the proposed system ensures the safety of the overall system with reduced intervention, highlighting its potential as a foundational technology for effective operator upskilling.