Thomas B. Sheridan
Encyclopedia
Thomas B. Sheridan is American professor of mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...

 and Applied Psychology Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

. He is a pioneer of robotics
Robotics
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...

 and remote control
Remote control
A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...

 technology.

Biography

Thomas Sheridan was born Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1951 he received the B.S.
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 degree from Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...

 in West Lafayette, IN, in 1954 the M.S.
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...

Eng. degree from the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

, Los Angeles, the Sc.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 (MIT) in 1959, Cambridge, and the Dr. (honorary) from Delft University of Technology
Delft University of Technology
Delft University of Technology , also known as TU Delft, is the largest and oldest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands...

, The Netherlands.

For most of his professional career he has remained at MIT. He was assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...

 from 1959 to 1964. Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1964 to 1970. Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1970 to 1984. Professor of Engineering and Applied Psychology
Applied psychology
The basic premise of applied psychology is the use of psychological principles and theories to overcome problems in other areas, such as mental health, business management, education, health, product design, ergonomics, and law...

 since 1984, and Professor of Aeronautics
Aeronautics
Aeronautics is the science involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of airflight-capable machines, or the techniques of operating aircraft and rocketry within the atmosphere...

 and Astronautics
Astronautics
Astronautics, and related astronautical engineering, is the theory and practice of navigation beyond the Earth's atmosphere. In other words, it is the science and technology of space flight....

 since 1993. In 1995-96 he was Ford Professor.

He is currently Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, continuing to teach and serve as Director of the Human-Machine Systems Laboratory. He has also served as a visiting professor at University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

, Berkeley, Stanford, Delft University, Kassel University, Germany, and Ben Gurion University, Israel.

He is editor of the MIT Press journal Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments and serves on several editorial boards; and editor of IEEE Transactions on Man-Machine Systems.

Sheridan chaired the National Research Council’s Committee on Human Factors, and has served on numerous government and industrial advisory committees. He is principal of Thomas B. Sheridan and Associates, a consulting firm. he was also President of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society. He was President of HFES, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Sheridan received their Norbert Wiener and Joseph Wohl awards, the IEEE Centennial Medal
IEEE Centennial Medal
The IEEE Centennial Medal was a medal minted and awarded in 1984 to celebrate the Centennial of the founding of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1884.The medal obverse shows 1884 in calligraphic writing and 1984 in an LCD font...

 (1984) and Third Millennium Medal. He is also a Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, recipient of their Paul M. Fitts Award, He received the 1997 National Engineering Award of the American Association of Engineering Societies and the 1997 Oldenburger Medal of ASME.

Work

His research interests are in experimentation, modeling, and design of human-machine systems in air, highway and rail transportation, space and undersea robotics, process control, arms control, telemedicine, and virtual reality. Working at MIT, Sheridan developed important concepts concerning human-robot interaction, particularly regarding supervisory control
Supervisory control
Supervisory control is a general term for control of many individual controllers or control loops, whether by a human or an automatic control system, although almost every real system is a combination of both...

 and telepresence
Telepresence
Telepresence refers to a set of technologies which allow a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance of being present, or to have an effect, via telerobotics, at a place other than their true location....

.

Robotics

Robotics and telepresence is just one manifestation of his interest the boundary between human and automatic control. His book Humans and Automation is a concise summary of the history, issues, and progress in the role of the human and technology in automation
Automation
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...

.

Publications

He has published some books and over 200 technical papers. Books:
  • 1974, Man-Machine Systems (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1974, 1981; USSR, 1981)
  • 1976, (ed.) Monitoring Behavior and Supervisory Control, New York: Plenum.
  • 1992, "Telerobotics, Automation, and Human Supervisory Control, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • 1997, (ed.) Perspectives on the Human Controller, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • 2002, Humans and Automation: System Design and Research Issues, John Wiley and Sons, 2002.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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