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The US Navy will replace the touchscreen throttle and helm controls currently installed in its destroyers with mechanical ones starting in 2020, says USNI News. The move comes after the National Transportation Safety Board released an accident report from a 2017 collision, which cites the design of the ship’s controls as a factor in the accident.
On August 21st, 2017, the USS John S. McCain collided with the Alnic MC, a Liberian oil tanker, off the coast of Singapore. The report provides a detailed overview of the actions that led to the collision: when crew members tried to split throttle and steering control between consoles, they lost control of the ship, putting it into the path of the tanker. The crash killed 10 sailors and injured 48 aboard the McCain.
The report says that while fatigue and lack of training played a role in the accident, the design of the ship’s control console were also contributing factors. Located in the middle of the McCain’s bridge, the Ship’s Control Console (SCC) features a pair of touch-screens on both the Helm and Lee Helm stations, through which the crew could steer and propel the ship. Investigators found that the crew had placed it in “backup manual mode,” which removed computer-assisted help, because it allowed for “more direct form of communication between steering and the SSC.” That setting meant that any crew member at another station could take over steering operations, and when the crew tried to regain control of the ship from multiple stations, control “shifted from the lee helm, to aft steering, to the helm, and back to aft steering.”
The NTSB report calls out the configuration of the bridge’s systems, pointing out that the decision to transfer controls while in the strait helped lead to the accident, and that the procedures for transferring the controls from one station to another were complicated, further contributing to the confusion. Specifically, the board points to the touchscreens on the bridge, noting that mechanical throttles are generally preferred because “they provide both immediate and tactile feedback to the operator.” The report notes that had mechanical controls been present, the helmsmen would have likely been alerted that there was an issue early on, and recommends that the Navy better adhere to better design standards.
[...] Touchscreens weren’t the only issue in the collision: the report calls out that several crew members on the bridge at the time weren’t familiar with the systems that they were overseeing and were inexperienced in their roles, and that many were fatigued, with an average of 4.9 hours of sleep between the 14 crew members present. The report recommended that the Navy conduct better training for the bridge systems, update the controls and associated documentation, and ensure that Navy personnel aren’t tired when they’re on the job.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 12 2019, @04:09PM (4 children)
We're all nerds, geeks, whatever, right? Tactile feedback from a keyboard is pretty important to a lot of us, right?
Who here, thinks that such tactile feedback might be less important to a bunch of squids, trying to navigate a ship? Split screens? Huh? WTF? Every station on the bridge has a proper place. Dude with the helm stands here where he has the least obstructed view of the sea. Navigator's station is here where he can see all of the navigation devices, with access to the charts. For generations, all of the bridge crew has had a place to occupy, with good reasons for the placement of that place. The Captain's chair is right here where he can see every other station on the bridge, as well as everything forward and to both sides of the ship.
Splitting screens? Again, I ask, WTF? You roll some kid out of his rack in the middle of the night, tell him he's got the watch. He arrives on the bridge, and he's first got to figure out what the previous watchstander did with the screens? It may well take three cups of coffee to figure that shit out. Hard, physical controls with tactile feedback are essential.
Who, here, wants to steer their car through the city with a touchscreen? I sure as hell don't! Did I understeer? Oversteer? I want to FEEL what my steering tires are doing beneath me, not only via the suspension, but feedback through the steering column. I much prefer not to have power steering as well, but good luck finding such a vehicle today.
There are times and places for computers, touch screens, joysticks, and the like. But, never ever take away a mariner's tactile feedback from whatever controls he is operating.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 12 2019, @04:35PM (2 children)
The tactile interface should be two live female breasts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 12 2019, @05:38PM (1 child)
This is the U.S. Navy we are talking about. Everyone knows they prefer "joysticks" over the alternative.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 12 2019, @07:54PM
I don't know about that. Most of the Navy consists of motorboats. You need the proper interface for motorboatin'.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Tuesday August 13 2019, @03:38AM
A tale of two pickup trucks, both with power steering:
Mine has hydraulic assist. You can feel every bloody thing it does, almost like having a hand on the road.
The other has electrical assist. You can't feel a damn thing from the road (well, unless you fall in a hole, at which point it's a little late).
Took me til this instant to realise that when the owner of the latter drove my truck, and bitched about the steering being loose (it's not)... the real problem was that she's not used to feeling the road, and mistook that for slop in the steering. Which may explain why some people tend to wander all over the road even when they're paying attention -- they can't really feel where they're going.
I shudder to think of running something the size of a ship without tactile feedback.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.