ABSTRACT
Neurophysiological analysis has been used to tackle human factors in such sectors as health and aviation. However, there is little relevant research in the maritime industry in which human errors significantly contribute to accident occurrence. This paper pioneers a conceptual framework for assessing the mental workload of seafarers in maritime operations. It will enable the maritime mental workload assessment in a quantitative manner and hence can be used to test, verify and train the seafarers’ safety behaviours. A case study on ship collision avoidance is conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the framework using ship bridge simulation. The new framework using neurophysiological data can effectively evaluate the contribution of mental workload to human errors and operation risks and it opens a new maritime human reliability analysis stream. The findings can also provide valuable insights for evaluating seafarers’ behaviours in remote control centre within the context of autonomous ships.
