Neurophysiological Assessment of An Innovative Maritime Safety System in Terms of Ship Operators’ Mental Workload, Stress, and Attention in the Full Mission Bridge Simulator
Journal article, 2023
The current industrial environment relies heavily on maritime transportation. Despite the continuous technological advances for the development of innovative safety software and hardware systems, there is a consistent gap in the scientific literature regarding the objective evaluation of the performance of maritime operators. The human factor is profoundly affected by changes in human performance or psychological state. The difficulty lies in the fact that the technology, tools, and protocols for investigating human performance are not fully mature or suitable for experimental investigation. The present research aims to integrate these two concepts by (i) objectively characterizing the psychological state of mariners, i.e., mental workload, stress, and attention, through their electroencephalographic (EEG) signal analysis, and (ii) validating an innovative safety framework countermeasure, defined as Human Risk-Informed Design (HURID), through the aforementioned neurophysiological approach. The proposed study involved 26 mariners within a high-fidelity bridge simulator while encountering collision risk in congested waters with and without the HURID. Subjective, behavioral, and neurophysiological data, i.e., EEG, were collected throughout the experimental activities. The results showed that the participants experienced a statistically significant higher mental workload and stress while performing the maritime activities without the HURID, while their attention level was statistically lower compared to the condition in which they performed the experiments with the HURID (all p < 0.05). Therefore, the presented study confirmed the effectiveness of the HURID during maritime operations in critical scenarios and led the way to extend the neurophysiological evaluation of the HFs of maritime operators during the performance of critical and/or standard shipboard tasks.
human factors
safety
mental workload
stress
neurophysiology
attention
maritime
Author
Vincenzo Ronca
Sapienza University of Rome
BrainSigns
Esma Uflaz
Istanbul Technical University (ITÜ)
Osman Turan
University of Strathclyde
Hadi Bantan
University of Strathclyde
Scott Mackinnon
Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Maritime Studies
Andrea Lommi
Cetena
Simone Pozzi
Deep Blue
Rafet Kurt
University of Strathclyde
Ozcan Arslan
Istanbul Technical University (ITÜ)
Yasin Burak Kurt
University of Strathclyde
Pelin Erdem
University of Strathclyde
Emre Akyuz
Istanbul Technical University (ITÜ)
Alessia Vozzi
BrainSigns
Sapienza University of Rome
Gianluca Di Flumeri
Sapienza University of Rome
BrainSigns
Pietro Aricò
BrainSigns
Sapienza University of Rome
Andrea Giorgi
BrainSigns
Sapienza University of Rome
Rossella Capotorto
BrainSigns
Sapienza University of Rome
Fabio Babiloni
Sapienza University of Rome
BrainSigns
Hangzhou Dianzi University
Gianluca Borghini
Sapienza University of Rome
BrainSigns
Brain Sciences
2076-3425 (eISSN)
Vol. 13 9 1319Strengthening synergies between Aviation and maritime in the area of human Factors towards achieving more Efficient and resilient MODE of transportation (SAFEMODE)
European Commission (EC) (EC/H2020/814961), 2019-06-01 -- 2022-05-31.
Subject Categories
Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics
DOI
10.3390/brainsci13091319
PubMed
37759921