Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea (대한인간공학회지)

Ergonomics Society of Korea (대한인간공학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Maritime Officers' Strategies for Collision Avoidance in Crossing Situations

  • Hong, Seung Kweon (Department of Industrial and Management Engineering, Korea National University of Transportation)
  • Received : 2017.08.30
  • Accepted : 2017.10.16
  • Published : 2017.10.31
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate maritime officers' strategies to avoid the ship collision in crossing situations. Background: In a situation where there is a risk of collision between two ships, maritime officers can change the direction and speed of the own-ship to avoid the collision. They have four options to select; adjusting the speed only, the direction only, both the speed and direction at the same time and no action. Research questions were whether the strategy they are using differs according to the shipboard experience of maritime officers and the representation method of ARPA (automatic radar plotting aid) - radar graphic information. Method: Participants were 12. Six of them had more than 3 years of onboard experience, while the others were 4th grade students at Korea Maritime and Ocean University. For each participant, 32 ship encounter situations were provided with ARPA-radar information. 16 situations were presented by the north-up display and 16 situations were presented by the track-up display. Participants were asked to decide how to move the own-ship to avoid the ship collision for each case. Results: Most participants attempted to avoid the collision by adjusting the direction of the ship, representing an average of 22.4 times in 32 judgment trials (about 70%). Participants who did not have experience on board were more likely to control speed and direction at the same time than participants with onboard experience. Participants with onboard experience were more likely to control the direction of the ship only. On the other hand, although the same ARPA Information was provided to the participants, the participants in many cases made different judgments depending on the method of information representation; track-up display and north-up display. It was only 25% that the participants made the same judgment under the same collision situations. Participants with onboard experience did make the same judgment more than participants with no onboard experience. Conclusion: In marine collision situations, maritime officers tend to avoid collisions by adjusting only the direction of their ships, and this tendency is more pronounced among maritime officers with onboard experience. The effect of the method of information representation on their judgment was not significant. Application: The results of this research might help to train maritime officers for safe navigation and to design a collision avoidance support system.

Keywords

References

  1. Aretz, A.J. and Wickens, C., The mental rotation of map displays, Human Performance, 5(4), 303-328, 1992. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup0504_3
  2. Chauvin, C., Clostermann, J.P. and Jean-Michel Hoc, J.M., Situation awareness and the decision-making process in a dynamic situation: Avoiding collisions at sea. Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making, 2(1), 1-23, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1518/155534308X284345
  3. Geum, J.S., Yang, W.J. and Jang, W.J., A study on the system dynamics analysis for human factors in ship's collision accidents, Journal of Korean Navigation and Port Research, 27(5), 493-498, 2003. https://doi.org/10.5394/KINPR.2003.27.5.493
  4. Grech, M.R., Horberry, T. and Smith, A., Human error in maritime operations: Analysis of accident reports using the Leximancer tool. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting: University of Queensland, Brisbane, 46(19), 1718-1721, 2002.
  5. Hockey, G.R.J., Healey, A., Crawshaw, M., Wastell, D.G. and Sauer, J., Cognitive demands of collision avoidance in simulated ship control. Human Factors, 45, 252-265, 2003. https://doi.org/10.1518/hfes.45.2.252.27240
  6. Hong, S.K., Analysis of factors influencing ship collision avoidance judgment of maritime officers, Journal of the Korean Institute of Plant Engineering, 20(1), March, 3-10, 2015.
  7. Shepard, R. and Hurwitz, S., Upward direction, mental rotation, and the discrimination of left and right turns in maps. Cognition, 18, 161-169, 1984. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(84)90024-6
  8. Van Dam, S.B.J., Mulder, M. and van Paassen, M.M., Ecological interface design of tactical airborne separation assistance tool, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics - Part A: Systems and Humans, 38(6), 1221-1233, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSMCA.2008.2001069