Behaviour of deck officers with new assistance systems in the maritime domain

Paper in proceeding, 2011

The maritime domain is seeing new developments in systems aimed at increasing safety and efficiency of transport. These systems are tested for norm compliance and technical capability, but human factor aspects are not always part of the evaluation. The article argues that this is required, and exemplifies factors of interest with data from a simulator study. Two new systems related to collision warning and speed management were tested on 32 participants in full mission bridge simulators. The factors of main interest were the officers' experience, attitudes and workload. Data on the officers' behaviour were collected for complete runs and for different events related to possible collisions for the one system, and areas where speed should be limited for the second system. Differences in the officers' behaviour were observed in relation to several variables. The study claims that in addition to ensuring the technical capability of systems, a number of human factor issues have to be taken into account. Important aspects of the evaluation are highlighted.