Beyond Navigational Situation Awareness: Developing and evaluating situation awareness support system for remote engine room monitoring at the future shore control centre

Abstract

Remote operation offers multiple benefits as a viable transitional phase toward autonomous ships but also introduces situation awareness problems as identified from two feasibility studies: MUNIN and AAWA. However, it appears that situation awareness and its support systems are yet limited to visual and navigational awareness. This between-subjects study examined the effects of information organisation on situation awareness and fault detection performance of twenty-four marine engineers during engine room monitoring. The study identified better situation awareness and fault detection performance with cognitive support in information processing during challenging monitoring tasks. However, this effect appears to be mitigated during less demanding tasks. The overall fault detection rates across all trials remained at thirty-six per cent, albeit a single ship was monitored. With the prospect of a high workload at the future shore control centre, information organisation will be necessary to cultivate adequate situation awareness for engine room remote operators.