Abstract:

The maritime industry is seeking support from new technologies for managing ships, intended for reduction and compensation of human factor in marine accidents. Marine accident investigations have indicated that the accidents are frequently originated from the ships' bridge operations. Today, efforts to prevent accidents continue by increasing the situation awareness of the bridge team with automation and integrated bridge systems. In this study, bridge technologies and automation were investigated considering their effects on the situation awareness of ship masters and marine pilots who play a key role in the bridge team. In deep interview and focus group techniques of qualitative research were used to investigate the matter. Ship masters and marine pilots were selected as the target group. This study has allowed the evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of bridge technologies. Research data have revealed the relationships with new technologies, the perceptions, the similar and different approaches of ship masters and marine pilots. In this study, the investigation of the automation and bridge technologies from the point of ship masters and marine pilots is thought to contribute to filling the gap in the literature about this topic.

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