A Study of Workload Estimation for Maritime EngineerUsing VACP Method and Heart Rate

Abstract

Human error is the main cause of a high percentage of maritime accidents¹⁾. In many cases it is difficult to resolve human factors as cause of accident and necessary improvements. And one of the significances of the autonomous ship development is considered as complementing the human factor by the machine and possibility to reduce workload of officers and engineers onboard.

In this report, we focused on the workload estimation method for maritime engineer under quasi-real (simulation) condition. In an attempt to develop proposals of maritime engineer workload estimation by objective evaluation using VACP method and heart rate data comparing subjective evaluation NASA-TLX, we firstly studied the difference of participant’s biological reaction during black out situation. VACP workload scale was modified for maritime engineer situation and workload assessment was carried out by recorded video and audio data. The result of VACP evaluation and heart rate data had certain extend of correlation, and comparison of NASA-TLX showed that the proposed method was worth to estimate maritime engineer workload.