Ship Roll Stabilization ahd Human Performance

Abstract : The purpose of this study was to assess possible performance enhancements due to roll stabilization. Psychomotor performance was assessed under no motion, roll stabilized, and non-roll stabilized motion conditions in the Naval Biodynamics Laboratory Ship Motion Simulator. Twelve human research volunteers participated as subjects in the study. The motion conditions were measured and recorded at sea abroad an FFG-7 class frigate outfitted with five roll stabilizers. The following performance tests were used: four-choice reaction time; memory and search task; critical instability tracking. Three questionnaires were used, namely motion sickness symptomatology, magnitude estimate of motion sickness, and magnitude estimate of motion. It was found that subject performance was not affected by roll stabilized motion compared to non-roll stabilized motion in these experimental conditions. Subjects accurately judged the non-roll stabilized motion condition to be greater than the roll stabilized condition, but reported no differences in motion sickness in the two conditions.