CASCADe (Co-operative and Adaptive Ship-based Context Aware Design) EU Research Project
Almost 80% of collisions and groundings occur due to a failure of bridge systems and their usage
A new three year European Research Project, part funded by the EU has been launched to help increase safety on-board vessels. CASCADe, (model-based Co-operative and Adaptive Ship-based Context Aware Design) aims to address the lack of symbiosis which exists between current bridge design, operational procedures and the end user.
In the maritime environment there is a proliferation of increasingly complex technology. Studies have shown that the use of instruments with a range of different user interfaces or the provision of too much information can lead to errors and a reduction in performance. This unsatisfactory situation has the potential to create accidents and incidents which may translate into significant remedial and compensation costs. It is vital that a holistic approach is taken when developing ship bridge design, factoring in the required operational procedures and the subsequent end user interaction.
CASCADe will develop an adaptive bridge system that will recognise, prevent and recover from human errors by improving the interaction between crew and machines on the bridge. The main outcome will be a new human-centered design methodology to support the analysis of agent interactions at early design development stages.
Under the coordination of OFFIS (Oldenburg Research and Development Institute for Information Technology Tools and Systems), a consortium of seven project partners from five EU countries will collaborate, including BMT Group Ltd, Raytheon Anschuetz GmbH, Mastermind Shipmanagement Ltd, the University of Cardiff, Marimatech AS and Symbio Concepts & Products SPRL.
Source: BMT Group
The EU project CASCADE – Model-Based Cooperative and Adaptive Ship-based Context Aware Design aims at bridging the gap between the design of the bridge system and the bridge procedures. The focus of this project is to optimize human-machine interfaces on the bridge. Studies have shown that too much information e.g. on screens or instruments with different user interfaces have led to numerous operator errors and wrong decisions of the crew members. An error that has been made once on a ship bridge can merely be corrected to some extent or in the worst case not at all.
Also view relevant article Together for Maritime Safety – Start of the EU Project CASCADe
