Abstract

Offshore drilling operations consist of complex and high-risk processes. Lack of situational awareness in drilling operations has become an important human factor issue that causes safety accidents. Prolonged work shifts and fatigue are some of the crucial issues that impact performance. Eye tracking technology can be used to distinguish the degree of awareness or alertness of participants that might be related to fatigue or onsite distractions. Oculomotor activity can be used to obtain visual cues that can quantify the drilling operators' situational awareness that might enable us to develop warning alarms to alert the driller. Such systems can help reduce accidents and save non-productive time. In this paper, eye movement characteristics were investigated to differentiate the situational awareness between a representative expert and a group of novices using a scenario-based Virtual Reality Drilling Simulator. Significant visual oculomotor activity differences were identified between the expert and the novices that indicate an eye-tracking based system can detect the distraction and alertness exhibited by the workers. Results show promise on developing a framework which implements a real-time eye tracking technology in various drilling operations at drilling rigs and Real Time Operation Centers to improve process safety.

Department(s)

Mining Engineering

Publication Status

Open Access

Comments

National Academy of Sciences, Grant 2000007356

Keywords and Phrases

Eye tracking; gaze; individual differences; offshore operations; saccades; safety; situational awareness

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1995-8692

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 The Authors, All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licensing

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2023

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