2023 Volume 8 Issue 2 Pages 45-55
Remote ship operation has received substantial attention as a future approach for operating autonomous ships. To control ships from remote locations, remote ship operators must adequately comprehend the states of their own ships and their environment. However, remote ship operations are not well understood; for example, it remains unclear how remote ship operators determine the present states of their ships and what information is crucial for controlling ships from remote locations in emergency situations. To investigate how to handle emergencies and identify important information and functional requirements in remote ship operation, this study proposes a method for analyzing situation awareness, which is often defined as a state of knowledge achieved by remote ship operators. This method was developed through the study of simulation-based experiments using a remote maneuvering simulator. This study analyzed the process by which remote ship operators achieve situation awareness during the emergency breakdown of a remote system using the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) (modified for this experiment). Specifically, the process was determined by analyzing the participants’ behaviors and eye gazes and conducting interviews with them. The results show that the interviewees’ responses were consistent with their behaviors and eye gazes.
