Assessment of electronic navigation equipment’s effect to mental workload by utilising revised NASA task load index

Maritime navigation had huge advances in technology in past decade and is still under development. As a result of this, ship masters/officers must perform increasing number of tasks in shorter periods by using electronic equipment on the bridge. Assessing the mental workload imposed on operator is particularly critical in high technology systems. NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) is one of the most common methods for measuring mental workload. The original NASA-TLX has six factors which do not contain that are related to the target evaluation system. For this reason Revised version of NASA-TLX (RNASA-TLX) is designed. In the study, RNASA-TLX and the questionnaire for electronic navigation equipment were carried out with ship masters/officers working on different types of ships in different areas whilst navigating, berthing/unberthing and anchoring. This study explains the fundamental information for understanding the electronic navigation equipment’s effect to mental workload on the bridge.