Autonomous Underwater Vehicle deployment: design for polar operations with a focus on the Antarctic

The design of a ship or maritime platform impacts critically on the working lives of operators in a variety of ways. Some platform design features affect the mental workload, some affect the crew’s ability to sleep, and others affect the level of physical stress on the crew (Ellis, 2009; Houtman et al., 2005; IMO, 2001). A Human Centred Design (HCD) approach will provide a number of benefits, including improving human working conditions, improved productivity, enhanced user wellbeing, avoidance of stress, increased accessibility and reduced risk of harm (ISO, 2010; Maguire, 2001). Therefore, it is also a promising way forward to minimise the underlying causes of ‘human error’.

In order to achieve these goals, the maritime industry needs to develop its understanding of the value of HCD as a means to design solutions such as equipment and ships/platforms that integrate the needs of users. However, there appears to be no established and universally accepted approach to incorporating such design in this industry. We wish to establish a systemic and maritime approach to the application of human factors to maritime design and operations.

The Australian Maritime College (AMC), is developing and commissioning the building of a polar-capable hybrid Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)/Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) as part of the ARC Antarctic Gateway Partnership. This vehicle will be used to acquire high resolution data and samples in extreme environments under shelf and sea ice in the Antarctic region.

This proposed PhD project entails tracking and recording the development of the new state-of-the-art AUV from a Human Factors perspective, with the researcher acting as both an insider researcher and as a human factors adviser to the development process. With safety as a priority, this project will positively impact on the specific design in the project and also add to the knowledge base of maritime HCD.

The research will also take into account best practice in other high-risk industries and the IMO Polar Code. The recommended background of the candidate is social science, organizational safety, Human Factors or similar.

The other member of the supervision team on this project will be A/Prof Shuhong Chai (AMC, UTAS).

This project is supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Special Research Initiative for Antarctic Gateway Partnership. For information about the Antarctic Gateway Partnership visit the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) web page.