Identification of the Relationship between Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships and the Operator’s Mental Workload

Abstract

Shipping is an indispensable tool for the sustainable global supply chain, and seafarers play a key role in safe navigation. Maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) have been expected to reduce marine accidents by human error of the seafarers. On the other hand, MASS may have adverse effects on operators’ mental workload (MWL) and increase safety risks in some cases. This research aims to provide a scheme for identifying the relationship between MWL and MASS in the maritime that can be utilised for rulemaking and technological development. The provided scheme identifies the factors that affect the MWL of operators and sub-elements of MWL through gap analysis. Five factors related to MASS operation were defined, in addition to general factors. The case study was carried out by utilising the scheme on typical cases focusing on the normal navigational situation. The NASA task load index method was used to measure MWL. Ten deck officers with various ranks, including the third officer and captain, participated in the case study. The results suggested that various causes such as conflicted situations, machine–human interfaces, mechanical-style movements of the ship, reliability of MASS, and visibility constraints affect the MWL of operators. It also confirmed the verification of the identification scheme.