Seeking Harmony in Shore-Based Unmanned Ship Handling: From the Perspective of Human Factors, What Is the Difference We Need to Focus on from Being Onboard to Onshore?

During the ship handling process, ship handlers have always strived for a continuous balanced effect by tuning the ship to the environment under different situations. Previous studies (Prison et al., 2009) have discovered that one tacit but indispensable gut feeling known as ship sense is intensively involved in ship handling for the safety of the vessel and people. When the bridge officer lacks visual reference, navigational instruments like the radar and the electronic nautical chart will be the main input source. However, when the weather gets rough, he will make use of ship sense to handle the ship in relation to the direction of the oncoming wave (Porathe et al., 2014). Sensing the ship’s movements, the bridge crew will maneuver the ship to achieve the goal of safety.