APPLICATION-BY-APPLICATION ANALYSIS OF IMPACT OF ROBOTICS ON THE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF BILLETS AND MANNING ON TOTAL SHIP BASIS

A MULTIPURPOSE TASK ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY IS PROPOSED WHICH WOULD FACILITATE THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE IMPACT OF ALLOCATING WORK PREVIOUSLY PERFORMED BY MEN TO ROBOTIC DEVICES. A DESIGN DATABASE LIBRARY OF ROBOTIC COMPONENTS, SORTABLE AS AN EQUIPMENT LIST IS PROPOSED WHICH IS BASED ON TASK FULLFILLMENT OF FUNCTIONS. ITEMS WHICH ARE ASSESSED INCLUDE THE WORK PRESENTLY PERFORMED BY MEN, THE WORK TO BE PERFORMED BY THE ROBOTIC DEVICE, AND ANY NEW TASKS GENERATED BY THE CREATION OF THE ROBOT. A COST/BENEFIT WEIGHTING SCHEME IS PROPOSED FOR EVALUATION OF ROBOTIC APPLICATIONS. ROBOTIC FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS ARE MATCHED WITH TASKS, ELEMENTS OR SUBELEMENTS NOT ONLY IN ORDER TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE APPROACH, BUT ALSO TO DRIVE THE DESIGN OF THE PROPOSED ROBOT. INNOVATIVE CONCEPTS INCLUDE A MULTIPURPOSE COMPUTERIZED TASK ANALYSIS SYSTEM THAT COMPARES DETAILS OF HUMAN TASK PERFORMANCE TO PROPOSED REPLACEMENT ROBOTIC FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS. ROBOTIC DEVICE AND WORKSPACE MODELING UTILIZING DIGITZED IMAGING IS ALSO PROPOSED IN ORDER TO PROVIDE HUMAN FACTORS INPUT AT THE FRONT END OF THE DESIGN.