The Impact of Bridge Alerts on Navigating Officers

Abstract

New navigation-related technologies and complex ships' systems are associated with a considerable amount of information and alerts on navigational bridges. Each alert triggers a process conducted by the Officer Of the Watch (OOW), which includes data collection and interpretation, decision making, as well as appropriate actions. In the case of too many alerts or poorly managed alerts, the workload of the OOW may significantly increase, and situational awareness may be compromised, increasing the risk of errors. The main goal of this research is to analyse OOW actions triggered by the alerts. The research methods included an experiment on a bridge simulator with experienced officers, a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews. The main outcomes encompass the frequency of the alerts and the number and the processing times of single actions conducted upon an alert. The results indicate that, on average, during one watch, an OOW spends 22·4 minutes conducting 64 actions triggered by 16 alerts. However, officers consider 45% of the alerts as over-prioritised and distracting at the moment of their notification.