Returning to periscope depth in a circular control room configuration
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Returning to periscope depth in a circular control room configuration Neville A. Stanton1 · Aaron P. J. Roberts1 · Kiome A. Pope1 · Daniel Fay1 Received: 18 May 2020 / Accepted: 22 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Previous research has shown that co-location of operators dependent on each other for task-relevant information can relieve the previously identified bottleneck of information between the Sonar Control (SOC) and Operations Officer (OPSO) in submarine sound and control rooms. This research aimed to examine the impact of a novel inwards facing circular configuration on communications and tasks within a co-located control room. Ten teams participated in high and low demand Return to Periscope Depth scenarios in a simulated submarine control room. All communications between operators were recorded and compared with a baseline study of contemporary operation. The findings show that the novel circular configuration led to a reduction in communications, but an increase in information shared. Indicating that the teams had become more efficient at passing relevant information. Furthermore, teams were able to complete a greater number of tasks. Keywords Submarine · Teamwork · Communications · Networks · Control room configuration
1 Introduction 1.1 Contemporary submarine control room design Submarine command teams are characteristic of distributed teams due to their reliance on technology to communicate between the separate sound and control rooms (Cramton 2001; Hinds and Bailey 2003; Hamburger et al. 2011; Stanton et al. 2017). In contemporary submarines, Sonar Operators (SOPs) and Target Motion Analysis operators (TMAs) are reliant on the Sonar Controller (SOC) and the Operations Officer (OPSO), to pass information between the sound room and the control room (Roberts et al. 2017a, 2018; Stanton et al. 2017). Passive sonar is the key sensor used when operating at depth (Zarnich 1999; Kirschenbaum et al. 2014). In such scenarios, the SOPs are required to pass on information about contacts such as bearing, course, and speed (Stanton et al. 2017). The distributed nature of the command team means that information exchange is often incomplete or missing entirely (Hinds and Bailey 2003). In a baseline study of a contemporary submarine control room operations, * Neville A. Stanton [email protected] 1
Human Factors Engineering, Transportation Research Group, University of Southampton, Boldrewood Innovation Campus, Burgess Road, Southampton, UK
Stanton et al. (2017) identified a bottleneck of information between the SOC and the OPSO; the two operators responsible for passing information between the sound and control rooms. Further issues that stem from the distributed nature of the command team include a failure to share uniquely held information (Hinds and Bailey 2003). In a submarine control room, the Officer of the Watch (OOW) is required to assimilate data from disparate sources to maintain safety and make tactical decisions (Dominguez et al. 2006; Roberts et al. 2017a). How
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