Ship Motion Effects on Human Performance

The Navy need is for design specifications and guidelines which interrelate ship hull form characteristics and onboard human performance in a motion environment. These specifications and guidelines will prevent those motion profiles that exceed humanlimits for acceptable human performance and safety and must be based on empirical evidence obtained from a ship motion simulator or actual ships. The product of this research will be: (1) specifications of six degree of freedom motions and accelerationsthat produce degradation of human performance and safety to the point of being unacceptable; (2) the design rules and/or tools to be implemented for other hull types/motion effects to reduce the incidence and impact of performance degradations; (3)guidelines for evaluation of human performance capability and safety in a ship motion environment; and (4) descriptions of new methods to characterize ship motion effects on human performance and safety. The proposed effort will be conducted by CarlowInternational, a human systems integration research organization, supported by the National Biodynamics Laboratory (NBDL) of the University of New Orleans, a leader in the analysis and research on effects of ship motion on human performance, safety, andquality of life. NBDL has the ship motion simulators that are required to generate data on the effects of specific hull forms on human performance and safety. This effort will provide empirical data on the impact of ship motions associated with shiphull forms on human performance, safety and quality of life. The tool produced in the project will support identification of the effects of ship motion on human performance capability as a function of sea state and tasks to be performed. Potentialcommercial applications include applications to mitigate the effects of platform motion on human performance for commercial ships, including cruise ships and ferries, maritime and offshore systems, aircraft, both fixed and rotary wing, and virtualenvironments.