Interaction with automated technical means as an integral part of professional-communicative competence of a seaman

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INTERACTION WITH AUTOMATED TECHNICAL MEANS AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF PROFESSIONAL-COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE OF A SEAMAN

Romenskiy A.V.

Abstract

This article is devoted to the issue connected to the work of seamen with automated technical means, which is the integral part of their professional-communicative competence. The main issue which the author touches upon is that all automatics on board vessels should be considered not just as an instrument, but as one more crew member which may give assistance when needed or may lead to confusion if not properly operated. In the article the author considers in detail such concepts as "communication", "automation", "automated technical means", "error".

The author of the article pays great attention to "man-machine" system, pointing out its levels and describing the role of automation on board ships. In addition the author gives general rules and recommendations, in accordance to the requirements of the international maritime law, concerning raising the level of safety of navigation in general and on each vessel separately.

Key words: communication, automation, automated technical means, system "man-machine", operator's mistake, safety of navigation.

Данная статья посвящена вопросу работы моряков с автоматизированными техническими средствами, которые являются неотъемлемым компонентом профессионально-коммуникативной компетентности моряков. Автор детально рассматривает такие понятия, как "коммуникация", "автоматизация", "автоматизированные технические средства", "ошибка оператора".

Особое значение в статье автор придает системе "человек-машина", освещаются ее виды, а также рассматривается вопрос значимости автоматизации на судне. Кроме того, указываются общие правила и рекомендации, в соответствии с требованиями международного морского права относительно усиления степени безопасности как судоходства в целом, так и работы отдельного судна.

Ключевые слова: коммуникация, автоматизация, автоматизированные технические средства, система "человек-машина", ошибка оператора, безопасность судоходства.

Роменський О.В. Взаємодія з автоматизованими технічними засобами як невід'ємний компонент професійно-комунікативної компетеноності моряка

В цій статті розглядається питання пов'язане з роботою моряків з автоматизованими технічними засобами. Беручи до уваги поточний рівень автоматизації сучасних суден, ці вміння стають невід'ємною частиною професійно-комунікативної компетентності моряка.

Основним питанням, яке автор розглядає у статті є те, що всю автоматику судна слід розглядати не просто як інструмент, неживу частину судна, а як ще одного члена екіпажу, який може за необхідності надати допомогу, або може призвести до безладу в разі відсутності у моряка розуміння того, як саме пристрій працює або як правильно організувати роботу екіпажу при роботі з автоматизованими технічними засобами. Існує низка застережень та рекомендацій відносно того, як слід працювати з судновою автоматикою, які члени команди завжди мають пам'ятати для забезпечення безпечної навігації.

В статті автор приділяє великого значення системі "людина-машина". Розглядається питання пов'язані з різновидами системи "людина-машина" та суднової автоматизації.

Окремим питанням автор розглядає проблему помилки оператора а також причини їх виникнення. Автор описує види помилок, причини їх виникнення, а саме помилок, які виникають в процесі роботи з судновими автоматизованими технічними засобами.

Також, автором статті наводяться загальні правила та рекомендації щодо шляхів підвищення рівня безпеки як судноводіння в цілому, так і роботи кожного окремого судна.

Ключові слова: комунікація, автоматизація, автоматизовані технічні засоби, система "людина-машина", помилка оператора, безпека мореплавства.

For the present, automated technical means play a very important role in the human life. With their help people decide a great variety of issues, where belong issues connected to production activity almost in all areas of the human life. Shipping industry is not the exception.

While working on board the vessel, seamen always have to deal with different automated technical means, which serve for analyzing the work of systems and mechanisms of the ship. In its turn, incorrect understanding of provided information, may lead to accidents to happen.

Results of research work done by different international organizations state that in most cases it is operators' mistake and incorrect way of organizing the work of crew members while working with automated technical means of ships happen to be reasons for accidents at sea to occur [5, p. 79]. On these grounds, we may state that for the present, automated technical means play a very important role in crews' work and the ability to correctly operate them and also to interact with them becomes very important, what, in turn, causes actuality of the article.

It should be noted that a significant number of scientists were studying the problem of human interaction with automated technical means. Among them are: P. Fitts. V. Bodrov, M. Kotik, A. Siegel, S. Manuhina, D. Seydler, R. Jensen, S. Syerheyev, M. Monmollen, J. Wolf, J. Strelkov and many others. Despite this, the issue related to human interaction with technical means during their work requires additional further study, and this forms the task of our study.

The aim of this article - to define the role of communication between human beings and automated technical means on board vessels, as well as reasons and ways to prevent operator errors to occur while working with automated technical means.

To achieve this aim, we have to solve following tasks:

- define the term "communication";

- consider such phenomenon as a system "man-machine", and the role of man in the system;

- describe the concept of automation on ships, its levels and impact on the quality of work of ship equipment operators;

- define the concept "operator error", its types and causes, and identify ways to prevent errors when working with automated technical means.

It is widely known that professional-communicative competence plays a significant role for seamen working on vessels. Under professional-communicative competence we understand having mastered some knowledge and skills and also readiness to use them while working. On one hand, it is necessary for organizing the work of the crew taking into account differences between crewmembers and also the level of their knowledge of English. On the other hand, it is necessary for reaching the efficient interaction with crews of other vessels and representatives of organizations and services with which crewmembers have to interact for solving production issues [10, p. 51].

As it can be seen from the definition of the term "professional-communicative competence", information exchange or in other words communication plays a significant role in seaman's work. Herewith, communication may be not only direct and communicators not necessarily have to be, but machines or automated technical means and so on. So, we should consider seaman's ability to interact with different technical means, as well as the ability to analyze the information. Therefore, we have to define the following terms: communication, system "man-machine" automation, automated technical means, operator's error.

The term "communication" comes from the Latin word "communicatio" which means message, transmission and the word "communicare" - to make something common, communicate, connect, inform, transmit [1, p. 6]. This term appeared approximately at the beginning of the ХХ-th century and has a great variety of definitions. So, communication is:

- socially conditioned process of information transmission and perception in terms of interpersonal and mass communication that occurs through various channels and means of communication (S. Borisnyov) [1, p. 14];

- technical process of information exchange between two or more individuals or groups of individuals, which means communication between people and other social parties; communications with the help of technical means; definite system by means of which connection between remote objects as underground utilities, transport connection, waste pipes etc. is provided (J. Kosenko) [2, p. 19];

- informational connection of the subject with one or another object of the process of communication - human being, animal, machine(M. Kagan) [8, p. 11].

Thus, we may conclude that "communication" in the wide sense of the term means information exchange/transfer, that is expressed in its perception and understanding (collecting, storing, analyzing, processing and responding to received information). Communication may be direct or indirect, bilateral and unilateral, verbal and nonverbal, personalized and anonymous. In addition, during communication a wide variety of communication facilities and means for information transfer/broadcasting may be used. Here, special attention should be paid to participants of the process of communication - they may be both individuals and organizations in general, but also different technical means which people have to deal with in the process of production work [11]. At the scientific literature such kind of communication is called system "man-machine".

Intensive development of automated and automatic production indicates that the proportion of automated production processes in all areas of human activity is growing rapidly, resulting in ever-increasing need for people to interact with different technical means at the workplace.

In accordance to the general systems theory, the term "system" is defined as a set of interrelated elements which are connected by common purpose and information network. If the system consists of a human being and a technical devices, it is called a "man-machine" system, in which the first one - is operator, subject of the production process and the second one - operated object, tool.

A characteristic feature of the present stage of development of the scientific and technological progress is creation of automated control systems on the bases of computers, which resulted in:

- the number of objects and their parameters that need to be managed increased;

- significant development was the objects' remote control system, the dynamics of which is judged on the basis of signals perceived by means of displaying information received a significant development;

- complicated and increased the speed of the flow of production processes increased and became more complicated;

- working conditions have changed;

- changes in the structure and nature of labor activity occurred, appeared the profession of operator, whose main function is to manage, debug and control the work of a great number of automated systems;

- different types of "man-machine" systems appeared, operation of which depends on interaction between technical devices and human activities at a single regulation circuit [3, p. 233].

Depending on the "machine" component in "man-machine" system, the complexity of such systems may vary. Thus, in terms of complexity Boris Lomov distinguishes following types of "man-machine" systems:

- tool - where technical devices are tools and instruments;

- simple - which include both stationary and non-stationary technical unit, as well as a person who operates them;

- complex - in which a person controls a set of technologically interrelated devices and machines of different purpose;

- "man-machine" system as an engineering complex. In this case, it is a complex system in which a person interacts not only with technical devices, but also with other people [7, p. 227].

Depending on the fact that on the modern ship almost all processes are automated, it is a good example of a "man-machine" system, which is represented as a systems engineering complex. Taking into account that systems engineering complexes may be represented as a hierarchy of simpler man-machine systems, in relation to the merchant ship they can be distinguished according to the level of ship automation.

Ship's automation - a process which results in different shipboard equipment controlling functions, previously performed by man, pass to technical devices and appliances. Automation of ships as transport units aims to optimize the use of vehicles, having reduced time for travel and mooring.

Depending on the level of processes, occurring on the ship, been automated, three levels of automation are distinguished:

- partial automation - automation level, where only some processes which are usually not amenable to management by man are automated;

- integrated automation - automation level at which the vessel operates as a single automated complex. Also, integrated ship automation provides improving its technical- economical and operational performance indicators, and also improving navigation safety and reliability of ship machinery;

- full automation - the highest level of automation, in which the vessel operates without a crew (for example: research submarines etc.) [6, p. 37].

Despite the fact that automated technical means are designed to facilitate labor activities of seamen by improving the efficiency and safety of ship management processes, very often automation happens to be the cause of emergency situations at sea to occur.

It is determined that the higher the level of ship automation is, the more often sailors face various specific psychological problems in the man-machine interaction, which are usually associated with a decrease of the leading role of operators, which in turn leads to passivity in the process of management the ship. Also, under the influence of a great variety of ship equipment with which seamen have to interact and also complexity to operate it significantly increases the information load of operators. In addition, this problem is also affected by such unobtrusive but very important element as design culture difference of equipment manufacturers. Thus, a seaman may feel discomfort when working with the same ship equipment units from different manufacturers. This is due to the usability of the device, way to provide data, data completeness and clarity.

Modern merchant ship - one more example of a "man - machine" system - the system where a person (or group of people) interacting with technical devices during their labor activities, performing control functions, data processing and so on. From this reason, harmonization of interaction between human and automated technical means and also efficient allocation of functions between them turned into the most important tasks which ensures safe operation of the vessel.

One of the main reasons for accidents in industry, transport and other areas of human activity to occur are errors in the work of specialists. The world statistics says that every year from 50 to 80 percent of emergencies occur as a direct result of errors in operators' work [4, p. 148]. Here are some definitions of the term error given by different scientists. Error is:

- violation of limit values of parameters, that causes failures in ergatic system functioning; by its nature it is a bio-socio-technical phenomenon resulting breach of interaction between the subject and object of professional activity, low professional competence of the specialist, ergonomic imperfection of working means, etc. [4, p. 149];

- a kind of operator's failure which may be any violation of its algorithm. In any case a mistake is the failure to implement required actions, performing unnecessary actions, incorrectly or untimely taken actions [9].

Reasons of errors to appear may be quite different and usually connected to specific properties of sailor's personality, his health, readiness to perform tasks, organization of work and working conditions, recreation, relations with other crew members and so on. In addition, there is one more factor which negatively affects the work of seamen. At present, there is a clear tendency in decreasing the number of crew members, which in turn leads to increasing responsibility, accuracy of work and tension on seamen as ship equipment operators.

At the scientific literature five main kinds of errors, which may be done by human while working with automated technical means, are pointed out:

- errors of perception - operator did not have time to identify the problem, was not able to discern, did not understand;

- errors of attention - was not able to concentrate, to cover all at once, switch over to something else, quickly got tired;

- errors of memory - forgot, did not have time to remember, was not able to keep in memory, was unable to restore memory;

- errors of thinking and decision-making - did not understand, did not examine, did not analyze, did not unite, did not generalize, did not compare [12, p. 7]. seaman communicative competence crew

Also it is possible to point out the range of mistakes which may be met directly in the work of seamen:

- errors of response (untimely, late actions, insufficiently fast response to dynamics of events or changes in performance of devices);

- errors of misinterpretation of indicators of devices;

- errors which occurred as a result of operating not properly working equipment;

- errors of receiving information which occurred because of barriers and noises;

- errors connected to tardiness in controlling the work of equipment (connected to collecting information);

- errors connected to mistaken operation of alarm signaling, sensors and so on;

- errors, arising as the result of ignoring the non-typical or warning signals (abnormal noise level of equipment, mistaken operation of alarm signaling etc.) [5, p. 79].

To eliminate the possibility for errors to occur there exists the range of rules and recommendations directed to raise the level of ship's safety while using automated technical means. Seamen have to:

- operate ship's equipment with care;

- follow safety rules and labor protection rules while working with ship's equipment;

- form positive psychological attitude in respect of working with automated technical means, stay calm in case of any problems with equipment;

- realize the need to have appropriate rest to eliminate the possibility of collecting fatigue and as the result to make errors;

- bear in mind the fact that representatives of different nationalities differently understand principles of working with ship's equipment [5, p. 78].

The widely known insurance company in shipping The Swedish Club Academy, which developed the training course "Maritime Resource Management", gives following recommendations concerning how to interact with automated technical means:

1. Communication and briefings

- while working with automated technical means, communication gains great importance. It is necessary that before starting the work (and/ or during the work if needed), crew members could discuss their actions, could have a clear view who is going to do what and with what equipment each of them will have to work, in what mode and what information should be received etc.;

- changing the watch procedure should be held in the form of a briefing, during which the officer, who is giving over the watch, has to describe the dynamics of actions, pointing out what device (devises) exactly he used and how exactly data was. Extra attention should be paid to the issue of correctness of equipment operation;

- check how devices work - having programmed the device on receiving information or to actuate appropriate systems of the ship, the one should always check the stability of these devices and correctness of information provided by them;

2. Challenge and response

- interaction with ship's equipment should always be bilateral only: on one hand seaman has to be well informed regarding modes of equipment and to be able to distinguish when a device is working at a stable or unstable mode. On the other hand, the device should provide relevant information about real situation in different working modes;

- it is necessary to set limits in modes of the device, which could signal about extreme performance;

- while working with automated technical means there is no need to be diplomatic - if seaman understands how the device works and is able to use it, in the course of his work sailor will have no problems with the equipment;

- if device enables the alarm, the one should neither mindlessly disable it, nor quickly respond to it. First of all, it is necessary to check the accuracy and correctness of information using another device, timeliness and adequacy of the enabled alarm. Otherwise, the immediate response to the alarm enabled by faulty device may lead to confusion. At the same time ignoring the alarm and/ or switching off the device without further investigating all the circumstances the problem will remain unsolved and subsequently will lead to irreversible consequences;

- it is strictly forbidden to overtrust automated technical means, but to make on time and in full review of indicators of devices. It will allow to timely identify the problem and appropriately respond to it;

3. Decision-making

- automated technical means have a significant influence on decision-making process, especially in crisis situations when it is not enough time for thinking or for drawing a clear plan of actions. In such cases it is necessary to know well how ship equipment works and in what mode it works in case of emergency;

4. Authority and assertiveness

- regardless the level of automation, the one should always remember that on board the vessel people are the controlling element, but not automatics;

5. Workload

- a seaman may delegate some of his functions to automated technical means, or it may be included in the preliminary plan of the crew's work. It should be taken into account that the number of tasks, their complexity and time during which these tasks should be carried out directly depend on the level of automation: sometimes automation may ease the work when the workload is low, or complicate the work of the crew when workload is very high. In order to develop interaction between the crew and ship's equipment, from time to time it is necessary to change tasks of crew members and give them the opportunity to practice their skills of working with equipment at a safe environment (when the situation is under control);

- the one can make a table, where to specify in which modes a device can operate, and especially how to recognize when the device is not working correctly;

6. Learning principles of ship's automation operation

- starting to work with new equipment do not panic - it is necessary to practice to work with this equipment, having started to work with it in normal modes; it is necessary to imagine what this system consists of and how it works; to practice to work with new ship equipment in a controlled situation; to learn how this equipment works in extreme conditions;

- when consultation with someone regarding new equipment, the one should remember that there is a possibility that this person may have incorrect understanding of working principles of the equipment; when consulting the manual the one should remember that it may contain errors [13].

On the bases of above stated, we may conclude that automated technical means play a very important role in the work of ship's crew.

In general, taking into account all elements of interaction of seamen with ship's automatics, and also taking into account its role on the vessel, we may say that ship automated technical means play the role of another "mechanical" crew member. In this regard, each member of the crew having boarded the ship should clearly understand how exactly systems of the ship function, and also what they consist of; must know in what modes ship equipment can operate and how to recognize when equipment is working faulty.

In addition, future officers have to know how to organize the work of the crew using ship automatics, and also how to solve problems which appeared because of problems in operating ship's equipment.

At the present stage of our research work we don't find it completed and believe that for deeper understanding of the role of professional-communicative competence for seamen while working on board merchant ships the issue of using English on board ships needs extra study.

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