Evaluation of a Digital Assistant concept for Vessel Traffic Service Operators

Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) is an information service for merchant vessels in areas with high traffic loads or in proximity to ports. VTS is provided by VTS operators (VTSOs) that synthesize a large amount of information from different screens and different information sources to choose when and what to transmit to the traffic in the VTS area. As recent technical advances have paved the way for new ways of interaction and collaboration between human operators and automation, the focus for future system design has shifted from operator in or on the loop to human-automation teaming. This study builds on these recent advances and presents findings from an evaluation of a concept for an advanced decision support tool, a Digital Assistant, for VTSOs. The digital assistant presents information and offers different options for interacting, such as acknowledging information or delegating certain tasks. Four expert users evaluated the system in Wizard of Oz demonstration. Overall, the users deemed the concept as having potential and being helpful in high workload situations. They interacted with and partially delegated tasks to the assistant system but also raised concerns about not always agreeing with the automation’s suggestions, nor understanding what information these were based on. While the approach seems promising, future system iterations should consider the timing of the interaction between operator and automation, and the access to information to enable VTSOs to trace the automation’s decision making and increase its transparency.