Palestra Human Reliability Analysis: applications ranging from hands-on operations to remote monitoring

Palestrante: Dra. Marília Ramos

Título da apresentação: Human Reliability Analysis: applications ranging from hands-on operations to remote monitoring

Local: Sala ET03 do PNV (andar térreo – prédio Mecânica/Naval)

Data e horário: 21 de outubro, às 17h.

Abstract:

Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) allows for the identification, modeling and quantification  of human failures in a diversity of operations. This presentation will focus on two fields of application of HRA: oil refineries operations and autonomous ships. The oil industry has been, in the recent years, focusing on the development and application of HRA methodologies motivated by the possibility of decreasing the frequency of accidents with human error as a primary or contributing cause – estimated to be over 80% in the chemical and petrochemical industries. While oil refineries represent a field in which human failure is an expected concern, autonomous ships illustrate a less obvious field for HRA. Indeed, one of the motivations for the development of autonomous ships concerns the potential for increased safety and reliability. Human error accounts for an important root cause or contributing factor of accidents in the maritime industry. Putting the human operator aside for all (or most part of) operation tasks is believed to avoid accidents. However, despite having less interference of a human operator, autonomous ships will be still dependent of human operators in the near and medium future, and are thus not free of the possibility of accidents generated or aggravated by human error.

Following the presentation of basic concepts of HRA, its applicability to hands-on operations, such as oil refineries, to autonomous ships will be described, along with its main challenges.

Bio:

Dr. Marilia Ramos has a PhD in Chemical Engineering with expertise in Risk Analysis and Human Reliability. She is a former Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Department of Marine Technology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Norway, with a collaborative project with the B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences – UCLA.  She has extensive experience with risk analysis applied to petroleum refineries. Additionally, she is working with Autonomous Systems in the context of Marine Technology, with a focus on Human Reliability of Autonomous Surface Vessels operation.