Stress – Sink or Swim!

A typical working day for seamen consists of 14 long hours. Probably only because the International Labour Organization (ILO) decided this would be the maximum for seafarers, since the work on board never stops. Some decades ago, long working days were appointed as one of the main causes of high stress levels, causing employees to make sometimes dangerous mistakes or leading to serious health problems. But how can you experience stress when you are sailing something as beautiful as the world’s seas, you might say. Let’s find out!

In June 2014 k+s projects and their project partners, amongst others professor Klaus Gramann of the Technische Universität (TU) Berlin, presented the ‘Training meets Science’ project during ITS 2014 in Hamburg, Germany. They had focused on whether or not there is a turning point regarding stress in the maritime industry.

MARIN became intrigued by the project and together with k+s projects and TU Berlin they decided to start a pilot investigation.

Wendie Uitterhoeve, project manager human factor at MARIN: “We became involved because MARIN has been focusing on human factor research for some time now. My colleague Dimitri van Heel met Klinkenberg during ITS and in December last year we decided to move forward together.”

Brain and body

Let’s go back to the topic of stress. What is it? “Stress is a response from your brain and body to external factors, for example your job”, explains Uitterhoeve. “A human receives information through its senses, for example the eyes and ears. This information is transmitted to your brain, which will process the gained information and decide if and which action is necessary. This process is being influenced by external factors, for example the amount of work that still needs to be done, and individual factors, like the sleep you gained. These factors influence the way in which you process the information, how your performance is, but also how you react to stressful situations.”

Big influence

Stress is not necessarily a bad thing, I learn. A little stress causes you to be more alert, or to have a better concentration. It is when you have too much stress for too long it will negatively influence your performance and health. Headaches, sleep disturbance, short temper, upset stomach, job dissatisfaction, low morale and low concentration levels are just some of the possible consequences of stress. When getting real bad, stress can even cause an early death, most likely due to heart diseases.

Aviation industry

Let’s not get ahead of things, though. The very first idea for research about stress in the maritime industry derived when Klinkenberg talked to people connected to the aviation industry: “I started making up my mind and comparing what is done for aircraft pilots and what is done and might be suitable for sailors. Aviation and the maritime business have some similarities: both are responsible for enormous financial values, human lives and the environment and have moments of very high workload, however their working conditions are completely different. Sailors have to deal with a small number of personnel, intercultural mixture and have to share their work and private life sometimes for over half a year.”

Uitterhoeve: “Three parties with different backgrounds complement and strengthen each other in the co-operation in this project. The project goal is to come to a real time workload indicator based on several physiological and simulator data. MARIN’s motivation is to contribute to a cleaner, smarter and safer maritime world with focus on the operator.”

“As a specialist in brain-computer-interfaces and the detection of workload related neural correlates, the neurotechnology group of professor Benjamin Blankertz at TU Berlin is very interested in bringing the research out of the lab into realistic settings. The project with MARIN in a maritime setting focuses on an application that has been little investigated, yet, which makes it so appealing”, explains Daniel Miklody, PhD at TU Berlin, their involvement in the project.

Stressors on board

The factors causing stress are identified by other recent research as well. In 2009 the articles ‘Seafaring stressors aboard merchant and passenger ships’ and in 2012 ‘A study on the factor influencing the seafarer’s stress’ both found the same factors which were the main cause of on board stress: separation from family, time pressure and hectic activities, long working days, heat in the workplace and insufficient qualification of subordinate crew members. Next to this, the multinational crews were creating a feeling of loneliness and causing social isolation, which again contributes to stress.

Simulator training

So, back to the project. Klinkenberg: “The idea was born to use the forum on ITS to show brain activity during a simulator training, and with our project partners a prototype was set up. Never before had an EEG been taken during ship simulator training. It was an enormous work to get the principle setup, to get the data visualised in an online data stream and basically to find out that you can get reasonable data in such an environment, full of electronic equipment much more challenging compared to the ‘ivory tower’ of for example a science lab.”

In June this year a first pilot experiment has been done with the new partners in the project at MARIN. Within three days, three tugboat captains executed several operations on a shiphandling simulator while their heartbeat, skin conductivity and EEG were measured. The goal of this first experiment in June was to test and optimise the scenario’s and the experiment set up to have an optimal test protocol for a real experiment in September.

Uitterhoeve: “The aim of the pilot study is to execute simulations with different levels of workload and use separate tools to estimate the experienced workload in order to come to a reliable workload indicator.”

Measuring performance

“During the experiment in September, we will test several new scenarios with the captains”, Uitterhoeve continues. “Amongst others an offshore scenario in which they have to hold a tanker in place while there is a strong wind, suddenly changing direction, causing the tanker to move. The captain’s job is to hold the line while maintaining its position relative to the tanker. This is deemed a very stressful situation, since it is almost impossible. We will include factors like thick fog or high waves as well. Then, there is a free sailing scenario as well with an additional cognitive task, scientifically named n-back. During this scenario the captain will receive a range of numbers related to an assignment which he has to execute. This is a high-workload cognitive task challenging the working memory of the captains. While executing the given scenarios and challenges, the captain’s performance will be measured using EEG, heartbeat ratings, breath and skin conductivity.”

Real time workload indicator

What will be done with all this data? Uitterhoeve: “We will compose a real time workload indicator, which can measure someone’s workload and which enables us to make recommendation on amongst others changing procedures or to optimise training sessions. Miklody and professor Blankertz of the TU Berlin are the ones involved in the development of the workload indicator.”

Miklody: “We want to detect the neural correlates of mental workload but also measure other modalities and simulator data to investigate the complex connection in this realistic context. At TU Berlin, we will mainly focus on EEG to detect the mental workload but we will also investigate the physiological stress level through heart rate and skin conductivity. The combination of this with the data of the simulator, the type of ship and the environment, is supposed to give insights into the interaction with the different parameters of the individual scenarios and the pilots. Also, we want to investigate how the pilot’s stress level is apparent in his command and steering of the vessel.”

Human factor

“Not only is the so-called human factor still the main element in maritime safety, which is important to investigate, also can such research help to analyse and improve common settings in every day work routine. This involves the interaction with instruments or co-workers on the bridge, with operators on the radio or the setting of different work scenarios or fairways”, explains Miklody the importance of their research.

Klinkenberg adds: “Collecting data, biopsychological data, is one aspect. This, of course, has to follow ethical rules. It can create an awareness of the personal stress pattern but it needs to be embedded in a trustful and responsible environment. It is not about blaming people it’s about acknowledging, when and what creates and contributes to a high workload and maybe steals capacity, which is needed for the main task. It is very complex, and I am hoping that we develop more projects with good connection to ‘real life’ together.”

Uitterhoeve finalises: “For that reason we are looking for interested parties both from the scientific and maritime field to join in this research and built relations to execute long-term research.”

Anne Kregting