Human factors engineering, a term that is often used synonymously with the word "ergonomics," is the science and design activity that deals with improving how people interact with their environments, tools, and tasks as part of a system; the objective is to make these interactions safe, productive, and comfortable. Or, perhaps better stated from an engineering perspective, human factors engineering is the science and art of designing the environment, tools, and tasks so they interact well with humans as part of a system.

This discipline is difficult to implement in workplaces and homes on Earth. Many problems are technically complicated, as issues of money and scheduling are usually constraints, and the traditionally successful ways of getting things done make the politics of improvement and innovation complex. Allocating tasks along the continuum from manual to machine; taking into account all of the capabilities and the limitations of...