Investigating the Influence of Bridge Officer Experience on Ice Management Effectiveness Using a Marine Simulator Experiment

Abstract

The research investigates the influence of human expertise on the effectiveness of ice management operations. The key contribution is an experimental method for investigating human factor issues in an operational setting. Ice management is defined as a systematic operation that enables a marine operation to proceed safely in the presence of sea ice. In this study, the effectiveness of ice management operations was assessed in terms of ability to modify the presence of pack ice around an offshore structure. This was accomplished in a full-mission marine simulator as the venue for a systematic investigation. In the simulator, volunteer participants from a range of seafaring experience levels were tasked with individually completing ice management tasks. Recorded from 36 individuals' simulations, we compared ice management effectiveness metrics against two independent variables: (i) experience level of the participant, categorized as either cadet or seafarer and (ii) ice severity, measured in ice concentration. The results showed a significant difference in ice management effectiveness between experience categories. We examined what the seafarers did that made them more effective and characterized their operational tactics. The research provides insight into the relative importance of vessel operator skills in contributing to effective ice management, as well as how this relative importance changes as ice conditions vary from mild to severe. This may have implications for training in the nautical sciences and could help to inform good practices in ice management.

Comparative statistical analysis of simulated ice management effectiveness

“…Various parameters were collected in the initial study to try and investigate effective ice management, such as average and peak ice concentration drop, total ice clearing area, clearingto-distance ratio, and cumulative ice-free life-boat launch time (Veitch 2018). For this analysis effective ice management was quantified with the clearing-to-distance ratio, where the ratio is between the area cleared (km 2 ) and the distance the vessel travelled (km) during the operation.…”

“…One of the hardest factors to collect data on is the 'human element,' with their varying backgrounds, experiences, educations and training (Haimelin et al 2017). The analysis conducted in this paper helps quantify some of these hard to define variables, using the data obtained from a marine simulator (Veitch et al 2018).…”

“…The ice management data used in this analysis was collected during a recent study conducted by Memorial University's "Safety at Sea" research group. Their study investigated the effect of crew experience on ice management operations with the use of a marine ice management simulator (Veitch et al 2018). The study examined two groups, novice cadets and experienced seafarers, to see if there was a difference in the effectiveness of the ice management operation.…”

“…The study examined two groups, novice cadets and experienced seafarers, to see if there was a difference in the effectiveness of the ice management operation. After analysing the data from the experiments, 18 usable sample points were collected for the cadets, and 15 sample points were usable for the seafarers (Veitch 2018).…”

“…When analysing the effect of crew experience on ice management performance, Veitch et al (2018) assumed that the collected experimental data was normal by only interpreting a normal probability plot. However, this assumption may be inaccurate due to the small sample sizes, since normality tests for small datasets have little power to reject the null hypothesis (Ghasemi and Zahediasl 2012).…”