The Human Engineering Laboratory (HEL) was a research institution under the U.S. Army Materiel Command that specialized in human performance research, human factors engineering, robotics, and human-in-the-loop technology. Located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, HEL acted as the Army’s lead laboratory for human factors and ergonomics research from 1951 to 1992, during which researchers investigated methods to maximize combat effectiveness, improve weapons and equipment designs, and reduce operation costs and errors. HEL was one of the seven Army laboratories that merged together to form the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in 1992.
History
In 1951, Major General Elbert Louis Ford, the Chief of Ordnance for the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps, wrote a letter to Maj. Gen. Edward MacMorland, the Commanding General at Aberdeen Proving Ground, about the Army’s need for more advanced human factors research. It stated, "It appears timely to provide human engineering assessments in our development engineering designs and in our tests of these designs. Therefore, it is proposed that certain human engineering services be included in the activities at Aberdeen Proving Ground."
In December 1951, the Ordnance Corps established the Human Engineering Group at Aberdeen Proving Ground following studies and surveys that recommended a more concrete, systematized effort of integrating human factors in weapons and equipment design. The group initially consisted of seven people and was led by its first director, Dr. Ben Ami Blau, who slowly increased the work force to around 40 military and civilian personnel. In 1953, the group’s name was officially changed to the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps Human Engineering Laboratories. In February 1957, Dr. John D. Weisz succeeded Blau as HEL’s director and served as the lab’s director for over 35 years until his retirement in 1992. By that point, HEL amassed a total of 257 military and civilian employees and gained international recognition for its research in the field of human factors.
During Weisz’s tenure as director, HEL underwent several organizational changes. When the Army reorganization took effect in 1962, HEL became a corporate laboratory within the newly established U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) and became responsible for coordinating all of the Army’s human factors engineering initiatives.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, HEL provided several project offices at Redstone Arsenal with human factors engineering support during the development of various missile systems, such as the Hawk, Jupiter, Pershing, Saturn, and Patriot systems. In the process of developing several human factors engineering military specifications, standards, and data item descriptors with the U.S. Army Missile Command, it became evident that there were severe deficiencies in HEL’s knowledge of human performance due to insufficient equipment and lack of funding. Examples of data voids included the effects of acoustical energy on operator health and performance as well as knowledge on the symbolic representation of information on displays. In response, HEL identified the areas that required in-depth research and initiated experiments to specifically fill those data voids. These improvements eventually enabled the laboratory to develop the first simulation of the operating consoles for the Patriot system as well as apply human factors engineering to its design.
In 1968, the Army consolidated HEL, the Ballistic Research Laboratory, the Coating and Chemical Laboratory, the Nuclear Defense Laboratory, and the Army Materiel Systems Analysis Agency to create the Aberdeen Research and Development Center, which was officially established in 1969. In this new organizational structure, each of the five laboratories was managed by a civilian technical director who reported directly to a common commanding officer. However, the Center lasted only until 1972, and HEL quickly returned to being a corporate laboratory under AMC.
In 1975, AMC approved a pilot program that converted the human engineering groups at its Major Subordinate Commands into HEL detachments. HEL also gained field office representatives at major centers and schools in the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. When AMC established the U.S. Army Laboratory Command (LABCOM) in 1985, HEL was one of the laboratories that became incorporated under the new Major Subordinate Command. Other elements that were realigned under LABCOM included the Ballistic Research Laboratory, the Harry Diamond Laboratories, the Materials Technology Laboratory, the Electronics Technology and Devices Laboratory, the Vulnerability Assessment Laboratory, the Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory, and the Army Research Office.