Assessment of Seafarers’ Mental Workload: A Study on High Speed Craft

Abstract

High speed craft has become prominent in maritime industry. Sophisticated electronic navigation equipment on bridge increases mental demands of high speed craft navigator. In the present study, mental workload of high speed craft navigators has been assessed in terms of bridge navigation operations. For this purpose, the pairwise comparison of the effects of Electronic Chart Display and Information System, Automatic Radar Plotting Aid, Automatic Identification System and autopilot on mental workload and Revised NASA Task Load Index questionnaires were carried out. High speed craft navigators sorted berthing, unberthing, navigation in coastal waters, navigation in restricted waters, and navigation on open sea operations according to their mental workload levels. In addition, they indicated the factors mostly affecting mental workload and the remarkable suggestions to keep the optimum level of mental workload. As result of these findings, considerations have been made for increasing the safety of high speed craft navigation.