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Introduction
15 – HMI MEASURES FOR IMPROVED SENSEMAKING
IN DYNAMIC POSITIONING OPERATIONS
The drive towards increasing levels of automation is a major force for improving
safety across all complex, safety-critical industries. This has not only led to impressive safety records but also to new types of accidents where the collaboration between
human operators and automated systems breaks down. In this chapter we look at this
challenge from the perspective of a modern ship bridge and more specifically the
operation of Dynamic Positioning systems (DP systems). Accidents and near-misses
reports indicate that the sensemaking of Dynamic Positioning Operators (DPOs) is
not always successful, and we have identified six main sensemaking-related challenges: (1) alarms, (2) mode surprises, (3) critical information hidden from view,
(4) “Private” Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) limits shared situation awareness,
(5) deskilling and (6) out-of-the loop. This chapter looks at these challenges from the
perspective of making HMI improvements and introduces the concept of overview
displays. We discuss the feasibility of utilizing such displays to make safety improvements based on lessons learned from the petroleum and nuclear domain as well as a
user-centred concept study performed with experienced DPOs.
Introduction
15 – HMI MEASURES FOR IMPROVED SENSEMAKING
IN DYNAMIC POSITIONING OPERATIONS
The drive towards increasing levels of automation is a major force for improving
safety across all complex, safety-critical industries. This has not only led to impressive safety records but also to new types of accidents where the collaboration between
human operators and automated systems breaks down. In this chapter we look at this
challenge from the perspective of a modern ship bridge and more specifically the
operation of Dynamic Positioning systems (DP systems). Accidents and near-misses
reports indicate that the sensemaking of Dynamic Positioning Operators (DPOs) is
not always successful, and we have identified six main sensemaking-related challenges: (1) alarms, (2) mode surprises, (3) critical information hidden from view,
(4) “Private” Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) limits shared situation awareness,
(5) deskilling and (6) out-of-the loop. This chapter looks at these challenges from the
perspective of making HMI improvements and introduces the concept of overview
displays. We discuss the feasibility of utilizing such displays to make safety improvements based on lessons learned from the petroleum and nuclear domain as well as a
user-centred concept study performed with experienced DPOs.