Task human reliability analysis for a safe operation of autonomous ship

The human errors are considered as the major contributor to the marine accidental events. The implementation of autonomous ship (AS) in the maritime industry, might be considered as a future alternative to reduce these human errors. However, this type of ship will create new vulnerabilities and paths to failure even as it provides benefits on other scores. When the AS is in the port, a maintenance staff embarks on board, to carry out the scheduled routine maintenance or requested repairs. Mistakes made by the maintenance staff may have fatal consequences on the safety of the AS. The wrong way of sea chest strainer cleanness is one of the causals that has contributed to several engine room water ingresses, causing a complete damage of the engine room equipment of many conventional ships. In this paper, we analyze and model this event sequence from a human perspective. Technical methodologies i.e. human reliability analysis (HRA) event tree is used for the identification of the vulnerabilities of the task procedure and the technique for human error rate prediction (THERP) is used for the quantification of these human errors probability. Based on this analysis, error barriers and error recovery mechanisms are proposed to prevent its consequences.