Simulation-based training to enhance process safety in offshore energy operations: Process tracing through eye-tracking

Abstract

Systemic risks and human errors are the root causes of process safety incidents in offshore operations. Human factor amounts for more than 70 % of offshore incidents and among those 75 % of them are due to perceptual errors involving rich information displays. Offshore drilling console is one such area where a display of hundreds of parameters and alarms maintains a constant cognitive load on the driller and upon his slight oblivion, severe consequences can follow. One way to study these errors is through a cognitive approach that focuses on the information accusation patterns rather than a behaviorist approach of focusing on the decision outcomes. In this research, we attempt to apply process tracing through eye-tracking methodology to look at information acquisition patterns of participants during a well control simulation. The simulation was designed on a commercial well control drilling simulator to observe the difference in performances by tracking information acquisition patterns of expert and novice participants. Fourteen (n=14) participants were paired into eight teams with each comprising of a driller and a supervisor. Eye-tracking glasses were used to record the fixation and saccade pattern of the participants over the simulator console and displays. For the analysis phase, four time of interests (TOIs) were selected as drilling break detection, kick detection, kick control, and kick circulation. For these TOIs the fixation and saccades pattern of participants on various areas of interest (AOIs) were analyzed through heat and gaze plots. Significant differences in information acquisition patterns of the novice and expert participants were linked to their performance to reveal valuable insights. Such insights are useful in identifying the dominating factors behind performance and can be used for targeted feedback to improve well control training and evaluation.