# Human Factor Issues in Remote Ship Operations: Lesson Learned by Studying Different Domains
## 2 Background
### Human Factors in the Context of Remote Ship Operations  
Human factors examine the way human capabilities affect the system. Understanding the human factors involved can optimize the performance and reliability of the overall system. Human factor analysis is a scientific discipline that deals with understanding the interactions between humans and other components of a system; it involves applying theory, data, methods, and principles to design and optimize human well-being and overall system performance [12]. Despite the many advantages of remote operations, including more efficient cargo space, more efficient fuel usage and more efficient usage of crew and their skills [13], the technology complicates the interaction with humans. For example, SCC operators must make a new mental model, in which they are blind to the environment in order to monitor and control the vessel from shore. This requires transforming the _\"onboard mental model\"_ so that it can be transferred to the SCCs [7]. Notably, such mental model is an internal representation of conceptual and causal interrelations between components that people utilize in order to understand phenomena [14]. Most maritime accidents occur due to human error [10]. In this respect, [PERSON] et al. [15] discussed several studies, concluding that 80-90% of maritime accidents are attributable to human error. This is true in other types of operations as well. For instance, a study of 68 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) accidents found that 65% of the 287 causal factors were associated with a human being [16]. [PERSON]'s [17] theory and human factors analysis and classification system-maritime accidents (HFACS-MA) discuss risk assessments and provide human factors that are directly related to accidents. The HFACS-MA framework categorizes the causes of marine accidents into five levels including unsafe acts, preconditions, unsafe supervision, organizational influence and external factors [18]. On the other hand, this paper considers that skill-based errors, mistakes and violations are factors that affect control centers, in accordance with the health and safety executive (HSE). In light of this, it is necessary to understand the role of humans in the context of remote ship operations and to distinguish different types of human interactions and human factor issues that are likely to arise. The first question is whether humans play a vital role in particular functions. In remote ship operations, operators in the SCC have to respond to sensor information immediately, especially in the case of a hazardous situation. The human acts as a backup system when the autonomous system fails. Thus, the human in the loop acts as a critical sub-system which affects the performance of the whole system. This involves both human-machine interactions--as humans interact with the software and hardware in the SCC and respond to the sensor information--and human-human interactions, as the operators, situation team (captain and engineer) [19], and supervisor all work together on remote ship operation within the SCCs. Relocating onboard humans to onshore control centers introduces new human factor challenges compared to the existing challenges onboard manned ships and these may impact ship operations differently. [PERSON] et al. [10] and MUNIN project [20] argued that human operators involved in the SCC are as follows  
* SCC operators monitor the operations of autonomous or unmanned vessels from the SCC. Operators can give high-level commands such as changing the voyage plan. * SCC engineers assist the operators with the technical aspects of ship operation and oversee the maintenance plan. * The SCC situation team can take over direct remote control of a ship via the Remote Maneuvering Support System of the bridge of the vessel, which provides situation awareness (SA) to the crew in the SCC. The rest of this paper consists of three main parts. The next section explains the methods used in this study. The third section classifies the human factor issues in different domains.