The command team experimental test-bed stage 1: design and build of a submarine command room simulator

The command room system has developed across a century of submarine operations and so reflects a high state of evolution, but that does not mean that the system cannot be improved upon. Technological advances have resulted in the retrospective fitting of upgrades which may not have maximized the potential improvements offered. Future challenges for command teams in almost every domain include increasing amounts of data coupled with more automated systems and reduced manning. To optimise functionality new physical layouts, team structures, allocation of system functions, communication media, interfaces, and work design will be required. The aim of the ComTET (Command Team Experimental Test-Bed) project is to examine how a submarine command team currently functions, with specific regard to how information flows around the socio technical system. This information shall be used to evaluate limitations in the current system, promote ideas concerning where reduced crewing might be possible and highlight how extra data might best be integrated into the system. Phase 1 of ComTET involved the creation of a submarine command room with high physical and task fidelity. The ComTET team has designed and built a submarine command room simulator that is a representation of the currently operational ASTUTE submarine. The simulator is comprised of 10 workstations each with two stacked monitors, various input devices and a headset linked to a multi-channel communications network. The simulation engine is a custom build of Dangerous Waters software, a naval warfare simulation game. The software features many operator-controllable units from on board a submarine, allowing the completion of individual submariner command team tasks simultaneously to fulfil global (team) mission objectives. The ComTET laboratory has a range of devices for recording the personal communications of each operator, in addition to video recordings of each operator and ambient voice/video recordings. This will facilitate the construction of social, task and information networks to examine the command room from a socio-technical perspective. The laboratory is also equipped with physiological recording devices so that the workload of operatives can be examined using psycho-physiological approaches alongside commonly used standardised measures of workload, situation awareness and cognitive function. The data collected shall be based around three scenarios which capture the primary operations routinely completed by submariners in high and low work load condition

Learning to make sense

Helsdingen, A. S., & Van den Bosch, K. (2009). Learning to make sense. Paper presented at the Cognitive Systems with Interactive sensors conference in Paris. November, 16-18, 2009, Paris, France.Sensemaking is the process of understanding situations of high complexity or uncertainty in order to make decisions. Individuals and teams that are good at sensemaking tend to collect and critically evaluate the available evidence, seek for consistency, and test assumptions underlying assessments. Furthermore, their experience allows them to have a high appreciation for how the context affects the problem. In this paper we will (1) present observations on successful and failing sensemaking in first responder teams, (2) discuss the development of sensemaking competency, and (3) present an approach for training the knowledge and skills that are critical for sensemaking

The NOTECHS+: A Short Scale Designed for Assessing the Non-technical Skills (and more) in the Aviation and the Emergency Personnel

This research presents the development of a short scale named “NOTECHS+” to measure the Non-Technical Skills (i.e., NOTECHS: Cooperation, Leadership and Managerial skills, Decision-Making, and Situational Awareness), Resilience and Emotion Regulation, in a sector that comprises the aviation and the emergency personnel: the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS). The design process of the scale was carried out starting from a review on the behavioral markers used to detect the NOTECHS. Moreover, 70 interviews with HEMS experts have been conducted with the aim of developing Resilience and Emotion Regulation items by considering the different professional profiles (e.g., pilots, nurses, physicians, etc.) which compose the HEMS. Through a pre-assessment procedure, a Q-Sort test was performed on a sample of students (n = 30) to test the logical principles, but also intelligibility and clarity, of the items developed. Once the instrument was defined, 211 participants from the HEMS sector were surveyed to test the theoretical model behind the NOTECHS+ instrument. First exploratory and then confirmatory analysis yielded results that suggested that the 18 items selected conform to a bi-factor model composed of three skill-dimensions: Social skills (i.e., Cooperation, and Leadership and Managerial skills), Cognitive skills (i.e., Decision-Making and Situational Awareness) and Emotional skills (i.e., Resilience and Emotional Regulation). Finally, the study ends with a discussion on the results obtained, including practical implications on assessment and training based on this novel instrument

Overcoming distance in virtual teams : effects of communication media, experience, and time pressure on distributed teamwork

Een virtueel team is een team waarvan de leden elkaar niet of zelden in levenden lijve ontmoeten, bijvoorbeeld omdat de teamleden verschillende werktijden hebben of op verschillende vestigingen van een organisatie werken. Anders dan reguliere teams zijn virtuele teams in grote mate afhankelijk van informatie- en communicatietechnologie. Een voorbeeld van een virtueel team is een ontwerpteam dat binnen een multinationaal bedrijf een nieuwe productlijn ontwikkelt vanaf verschillende locaties door gebruik te maken van e-mail en videovergaderingen. Een belangrijke bijdrage van het huidige onderzoek is dat het laat zien dat de beperkingen van gedistribueerd samenwerken die de wijdverbreide toepassing van virtuele teams hinderen, zijn te overkomen. Door een combinatie van relevante groupware en ervaring met samenwerken op afstand, kunnen virtuele teams werk produceren dat qua kwaliteit en hoeveelheid vergelijkbaar is met het werk van face-to-face teams. Het lijkt er dan ook op dat virtuele teams geen modeverschijnsel zijn. Virtuele teams zijn de toekomst

Distributed situation awareness: Advances in theory, measurement and application to team work

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Situation Awareness (SA) is critical commodity for teams working in complex sociotechnical systems and is thus a fundamental consideration in collaborative system design and evaluation. Despite this, SA remains predominantly an individual construct, with the majority of models and measures focused on SA from an individual perspective. In comparison, team SA has received much less attention and this thesis argues that further work is required in the area both in relation to the development of theoretical perspectives and of valid measures, and to the development of guidelines for system, training and procedure design. This thesis advances team SA theory and measurement by further investigating a recently proposed model of SA in complex collaborative environments, the Distributed Situation Awareness (DSA) approach, and by testing a new methodology for representing and analysing DSA during real world collaborative activities. A review of SA theory and SA measurement approaches is presented. Following this, the DSA theory and propositional network assessment methodology are outlined and a series of case studies on DSA during real world collaborative activities in the military and civil domains are presented. The findings are subsequently used to explore the concept of DSA and the sub-concepts of compatible and transactive SA. In conclusion, a model of DSA in complex collaborative systems is presented, and a series of system design guidelines for supporting DSA are outlined

Developing an incident command system framework for natural hazards in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

It is beyond dispute that natural hazards cause significant damage to physical and human ‎domains, with more disasters occurring in the last 25 years are increasingly linked to climate ‎change. Therefore, there is a growing need to minimise the dangers and threats faced by ‎individual countries. Due to its geographical location and environmental conditions, the ‎United Arab Emirates (UAE) is particularly exposed to various natural hazards, resulting in ‎both the infrastructure and urbanisation being at risk. The uncertainty and complexity of ‎emergencies requires particular arrangement responses from emergency agencies, such as the ‎civil defence, and police services to share in minimising the impact of the emerging threats. ‎The reoccurrence of hazards and their impact suggest that the implementation of the ‎emergency response system and the incident command are wrong, or that there is a gap found ‎between the theory and practice in emergency response. Consequently, the UAE has realised ‎the necessity for implementing an appropriate hazard response system to avert and mitigate ‎the potential consequences of the hazards and to deal with future emergencies. This has ‎proven beneficial in the identification and evaluation of the primary vital factors and gaps in ‎the implementation of the incident command system, in particular, the Civil Defence General ‎Command (CDGC) agency used as a case study for this research. Thus, this research aims to ‎develop an incident command system framework based on a feasibility assessment to ‎facilitate emergency response, increase capacity, and enhance resilience of the CDGC in ‎dealing with hazards in the UAE.‎ To achieve this aim the research employed exploratory sequential mixed method approach to ‎collect and analyse the required data. In the first stage, qualitative semi-structured interviews ‎were conducted with Gold and Silver commanders (n=15). These commanders were selected ‎due to their high positions in their departments, with the Gold commander in the role of a ‎general director, and the Silver commander as a deputy director at the CDGC agency. In ‎addition, thematic analysis was used to identify key critical factors of the incident command ‎system, which were; implementation, organisational, individual, barriers and driver factors in ‎the current deployment of the incident command structure. The second stage of the ‎investigation employed questionnaires survey to measure and examine the perceptions and ‎values of the Bronze commanders (n=153). These commanders were selected due to their job ‎roles in the operational field as they being first responders to incidents. A Kruskal -Wallis test ‎‎(KWt) was used to examine whether there were any significant relationships ‎between the ‎independent variables (CD departments, job position and academic qualification) and the ‎dependent variables (the incident command system factors) at level (p <0.05). Thereafter, ‎further questionnaires were collected from experts (n=11), which helped in achieving the ‎UAE incident command framework validation. A sample size of experts was selected to ‎reduce bias associated with a decrease in the possibility of data response. Generally, the ‎higher commander ranks tended to reveal excellent judgment regarding the research results, in ‎accordance with their years of experience, which was more than 11 years and above.‎ The realisation of key contributions to awareness and understanding completed the ‎knowledge gap by presenting a developed incident command system framework that ‎addressed the key factors associated with the successful implementation of the incident ‎command system adaptable to the UAE’s environmental conditions. This research identified ‎and evaluated the critical factors of implementation, organisational, individual, barrier and ‎driver of the incident command system ‎in the CDGC agency in the UAE. The barrier factors ‎were treated statistically to build an improvement strategy for an effective emergency ‎response. This research has practical implications for the incident commanders as it actively ‎assures improved operation of the incident command system currently in place, so that it ‎enhances the capabilities within the CDGC agency during emergency response operations. By ‎doing so, emergency agencies in the UAE can be more effective and efficient. As a result, the ‎proposal of a new framework contributed to a more detailed and less confusing system that ‎overcome the identified barriers and aided successful emergency management.