Human Factors and safety in automated and remote operations in oil and gas: A review

This paper explores the Human Factors of automation and remote operations through review of safety literature. The literature was selected through keyword search and snowballing. We have prioritized empirical papers and safety issues based on a systemic perspective. Automation is designed to assist the operators in high and low workload situations. When unexpected events occur and automation fails, it can lead to loss of situational awareness (SA) and reduce system safety. The motivation for remote operations has been to reduce costs and remove operators from hazards. We have not found any systematic literature reviews of safety related to automation or remote operations. Findings indicate that poor design is a root cause in about 50% of the cases. Challenges found in accident investigations are that too many causal factors are categorized as human error. Suggested good practice of user centric design in control facilities are ecological interface design, eye tracking, and design of few and appropriate alarms. There is a lack of communication between system developers and end-users. There is still the challenge of vigilance when monitoring highly automated systems. Automation seems to support safety when it is based on careful design. We see the need for exploration of remote operations and automation in safety critical operations and suggest selecting specific cases together with the industry to document experiences and safety challenges.acceptedVersio

A Review of Resilience in Autonomous Transport to Improve Safety and Security

The risks of autonomous systems are emerging and we need to explore how risks can be mitigated through resilience engineering. This paper presents results from a literature review on resilience in autonomous transport systems (i.e. resilience, autonomy, transport) aiming to answer: How can resilience be used to improve safety and security of autonomous transport systems? What can the various transport modes learn from each other regarding resilience and autonomy; and more specifically, what issues are of interest for the maritime sector? The results show that resilience has been identified as an important enabler for safety and security of autonomous systems, with increased attention from 2017. Many of the papers discuss resilience in the context of safety improvements, or resilience against system failures. Most of the literature covers autonomy in road traffic and aviation. Findings from these modes can provide input to design and enhance resilience of maritime autonomy. As an example, the importance and resilience of infrastructure (i.e. intelligent infrastructure support) supporting autonomy in aviation and road traffic may be explored in improving resilience of maritime autonomy. The breadth of security issues from road transportation should be explored in the maritime industry. More exploration of existing research is needed in the maritime sector to select and build upon existing research from the other modes.acceptedVersio

Safety and Human Dependability in seaborne autonomous vessels

Highly automated and autonomous seaborne vessels (ASV) are developed to improve environmental impact and transport of goods and people. ASV are expected to be remotely supervised, to fulfil legal requirements and assure safe handling in cases of emergencies. The AutoSafe project is developing solutions for the safe operation of ASV. For emergencies, the human safety supervisors need to handle the vessel, supported by fallbacks, procedures, and technology. Passengers need to feel safe and know what to do in all situations, to avoid injuries or loss of life. International standards are a starting point to build safe, reliable and trust. The aim of this paper is to assess applicability and potential benefit of IEC62508:2010: Guidance on Human Aspects of Dependability to the AutoSafe cases, based on the identified project needs. IEC62508:2010 deals with the human aspect of dependability, where dependability is the combination of reliability, availability, maintainability, safety, etc. Methods and approaches exist to set requirements, assess, and evaluate human performance. However, they are most applicable to trained operators. Passengers' and especially emergency services' interaction with the ferry during emergency situations are only covered to a certain degree by the standard. These create human factor challenges, which should be referenced appropriately. IEC 62508:2010 should be updated with respect to highly automated and autonomous systems or refer to other relevant standards.publishedVersio

Experiences Of Safety And Reliability In Remote Control Of Safety Critical Operations From Oil And Gas, Automated Transport

We have explored experiences of safety, reliability, and security in remote control of safety critical operations in oil and gas, autonomous shipping, autonomous metro, road transport, space operations, and aviation. Our aim has been to identify best practices of design, use of standards and operations to achieve safety, efficiency, and usability. It is suggested to establish remote operations based on scoping process building on the benefits of automation/AI and human abilities, i.e., a user centered design approach, highlighting the need for "situational awareness at a glance" when operators are removed and well- designed alarms. Low workload must be addressed. Training to handle unexpected events and defined situations of dangers, are neededpublishedVersio

Challenges and emerging practices in design of automation

Automation is expected to improve efficiency, as well as increase safety and quality. However, as more automation is added to a system, the lower the situation awareness of the operators may be. In safety critical systems this could have severe effects. Recent accidents illustrate that poor design and poor implementation of automated systems may contribute to accidents. This underlines the importance of investigating the role and use of design guidelines and best practices of human-autonomy interfaces, to ensure that these systems are designed in a way that aligns with human capabilities. Semi-structured interviews with 14 experts involved in design were conducted to identify challenges in design when introducing automation, as well as identify emerging practises in use. The interview notes were subject to a thematic analysis, and this resulted in the two main themes, "Challenges in design" and "Emerging practices in design", which each has its associated sub themes. The themes underline the need to update methods and standards to overcome challenges, as well as ensuring that best practices are used. There is a growing awareness that introduction of automation requires regulation, innovation and development in design methods and standards, and a key element in these methods and standards will be involvement of users through user centred design.acceptedVersio

“Seafarers should be navigating by the stars”: barriers to usability in ship bridge design

Navigating a ship is a complex task that requires close interaction between navigators and technology available on the ship’s bridge. The quality of this interaction depends on human and organisational factors, but also on technological design. This is recognized by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) through the SOLAS V/15 regulation that requires human factor considerations in bridge design. The objective of this paper is to investigate how tensions between the main stakeholders’ interests and perspectives in ship bridge design may influence the achievement of the goals set forth in the SOLAS V/15 regulation. This objective is explored through a qualitative study in the maritime industry, involving seafarers, shipowners, and equipment manufacturers. We find suboptimal ship bridge design usability to be connected to structural characteristics of the maritime sector, where different aims and perspectives between core stakeholders impairs alignment with respect to conception of work-as-done in the operative environment. We also find that profitability is a major driver for the blunt end stakeholders, for whom the relation between usability and profitability is perceived as a trade-off rather than of synergy. We conclude that there is a need to develop processes, enablers, and management tools to (1) update the understanding of the professional competence needed in the technology dense work environment on ship bridges today; (2) strengthen the maritime stakeholders’ awareness of the advantages of human-centred design (HCD) which are both operator well-being and system performance; (3) enable implementation of HCD into existing design and development processes; (4) provide metrics for business cases enabling informed ergonomic investment decisions.publishedVersio

Improving Safety by Learning from Automation in Transport Systems with a Focus on Sensemaking and Meaningful Human Control

Automated transport systems are deployed in many areas and transport modes. The predominant engineering perspective has been to automate as much as possible and minimize human interaction. However, a balanced integration between human factors and technology is often missing, as well as the “hand-over” process between humans and machine. The risks of automated and autonomous systems are emerging, and there is a need to explore how risks can be mitigated through design, focusing on sensemaking, meaningful human control and resilience engineering. This chapter presents key issues from an ongoing research project exploring safety, security and human control of autonomous transport systems in road, sea, rail and air. The chapter aims to answer: (1) What are the major safety and security challenges of autonomous industrial transport systems? (2) What can the various transport modes learn from each other? (3) What are suggested key measures related to organizational, technical and human issues? We have performed literature reviews, interviews and reviewed on-going automation projects. We see the importance of involving humans in the loop during design and operations, support sensemaking, focus on learning from projects through data gathering and risk-based regulation. Unanticipated deviations are key challenges in automated systems, together with how to design for human–automation interaction and meaningful user involvement. Limiting the operational envelope seems to be a key issue for successful implementation and operation of autonomous systems.publishedVersio

Hazards and Risks of Automated Passenger Ferry Operations in Norway

This paper describes the hazards and mitigation of risks for operating automated ferries in sheltered waters in Norway. Two cases have been explored, one with max 25Pax (persons on board) close to shore, and another involving fjord crossing with max 130Pax. The approach is based on the formal safety assessment FSA framework specified by IMO (International Maritime Organization). The first step has been a Hazard Identification-HAZID in collaboration with key stakeholders (manufacturers, maritime authority, operators, and researchers), based on action research, building on experience and risk perception of the stakeholders. The HAZIDs have been based on prior incidents, safety critical task analysis, and hazards that may impact personnel safety and security. We have identified key areas of concern: Fire, Collision/Grounding, Man Overboard, Evacuation, or Ferry capsizes. We have suggested design approaches/measures to reduce probabilities of hazards occurrence and/or mitigate consequences. Challenges of non-failsafe situations must be handled through emergency response centres, and mobilization of passengers.publishedVersio

Safety and security of drones in the oil and gas industry

This paper describes safety and security challenges and best practices of the use of drones in the oil and gas industry, with consideration of the harsh weather conditions in the Northern Territories of Norway. We have described the present status of the use of drones in air, on water (surface) and under water. Drones are being used in the industry to reduce or remove dangerous, dirty or dull operations from humans and to increase quality of data collection. The Norwegian oil and gas industry and authorities have a high focus on continuous improvement of safety, security and environmental issues. This has for instance resulted in the offshore helicopter transport in Norway to be among the safest offshore transport worldwide. Use of drones in the safety conscious oil and gas industry, should help us to improve the safety practices of drone use in general. Our suggestions are to focus on systematic data reporting of the use of drones, establish guidelines for risk assessments and operations, improve the use and testing of drones in the industry (i.e. build more experience) and support improved robustness and resilience of drone use. In addition, we see the need for improved quality of the interfaces between human operators and drones to ensure meaningful human control.publishedVersio

Bruk av droner i nordområdene

Formålet med denne rapporten er å vise eksempler på bruk av fjernstyrte og autonome droner i petroleumssektoren og vise hvilke utviklingstrender innen droneteknologi som er viktige. Utfordringer og muligheter for bruk av droner i nordområdene er spesielt vektlagt. Teknologi for og anvendelser av flyvende droner, droner på havoverflaten og droner under vann er behandlet i denne rapporten. Rapporten beskriver hvordan droner brukes i dag og oppgaver dronene kan løse fremover. Rapporten beskriver utfordringer ved bruk av droner innen petroleumsvirksomheten og forslag til tiltak