Collaborative Hazard Control: Designing a Digital Fire Control Center for Enhanced Safety on Ships

Felix-Marcel Petermann, Julian Steinke, Hedvig Aminoff, Erik Styhr Petersen, Leander Spyridon Pantelatos, Julia Burgren

Letter Of Changes:

We would like to thank you for your detailed and constructive feedback on our manuscript. We have carefully considered all comments and made the following revisions, which adds to the quality of the publication:
- Reformulated the research questions.
- Added a section in the introduction describing -storrytelling- the process the authors observed in the current firefighting process on the visited ships to identify current gaps.
- Moved section 2.3 to the introduction.
- Added a table with the demographics of test participants.
- Improved referencing of tables and pictures.
- Added space and colon between "Testing" and "The" in "3. Simulation- and Role-play-based user testingThe".
- Fixed points 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of reviewer 2's comments.
-Removed the single paragraph after section 4.1.4 and incorporated it elsewhere.
- Stated contributions in the introduction.
- Justified limitations of the study in the discussion section.
- Added user phrases in the results.
- Adjusted the conclusion.
- Changing structur of introduction and methodology for a better and more comprehensible reading

Sincerely

Felix-Marcel Petermann and Co-authors

Keywords: safety engineering, human factors, Interaction design, fire safety

TL;DR: Description of a digital fire central design which provides a big picture of a fire incident on a ro-ro vessel.

Abstract:

Every day, thousands of vessels of varying sizes traverse the world's seas, posing significant risks of ship loss, cargo damage, and loss of crew lives due to onboard fires, which can rapidly escalate beyond control. With the ongoing advancement towards highly automated or autonomous ships, the challenge of ensuring an adequate number of experienced firefighters onboard will diminish. Consequently, enabling external firefighting personnel or operators stationed in control rooms to oversee the overall situation becomes crucial in guiding less-experienced crew members in fire containment and prevention efforts. This necessity for future autonomous vessels and current manned ones underscores the importance of enhancing shared situational awareness and establishing platforms for informed decision-making and communication.

Ships comprise multiple decks housing various sensors, firefighting equipment, and cargo with different risk classifications. For fire chiefs and control room operators stationed on the ship bridge or on land, early detection of fires and the implementation of appropriate measures to mitigate risks are essential. This paper presents the design of a digital fire central (DFC), developed through a human-centred design process and evaluated by three fire chiefs aboard Roll-on-Roll-Off (Ro-Ro) ships. The primary focus lies in detailing the design process and presenting initial insights from user evaluations.

Submission Number: 43