SmartOperator: An Open Experimental Simulation Software for NeuroIS Operations Management Systems Research

Human operators in plant operations play a critical role in ensuring smooth and safe operations processes. As AI continues to become more prevalent in operations management, it will impact the work of operators towards remote operations of highly automated systems. In such a setting, the affective and cognitive states of operators play an even more important role for performance and well-being. We argue that there is a need for research into the design of neuro-adaptive operations management systems. Therefore, in tight cooperation with an industry partner, we have developed the open experimental simulation software SmartOperator. SmartOperator is a web-based, multi-power plant simulation software that represents the tasks of an operator in an understandable way for non-operators. Furthermore, it offers the possibility to integrate neurophysiological and behavioral data of its users and trigger real-time adaptations on this basis to study their impact in a controlled experimental environment. By doing so, SmartOperator paves the way for research toward designing neuro-adaptive operations management systems and follows the Open Science paradigm to strengthen transparent, comparable, and reproducible research for NeuroIS operations management systems.