"What are your intentions?" - On Ship Bridge Decision Making

Licentiate thesis, 2007

Abstract This thesis discusses central aspects of decision making on a Ship Bridge in its natural context with focus on the task of navigating in fairway. The background springs from the fast development of instruments related to work on the ship bridge. If not implemented and used correctly new technology may even contribute to accidents. Initially a field study and a Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) are described. These exemplify how the task of navigation in fairway can be described and uncover aspects worth further investigation. Examples of results of the field study are examples of risk, differences in expected workload between Masters and Pilots and Pilots preferences of instruments. The HTA work model is used to identify and describe ordinary problems of navigating in fairway. This is followed by a detailed proposal of a study in a full mission bridge simulator using a composite of data collection methods. The main objective of the proposed study is to compare two ship bridge types, one equipped with advanced technology and the other one equipped with traditional instruments. A second objective is to evaluate the different data collection methods to find out more about how this kind of data could be collected. More knowledge of decision making on a ship bridge could be of use when discussing changes of instruments or work organisations related to a ship bridge, promoting safety and efficiency.