Design of the ship officer's bridge for autonomous electric water shuttles
2024
My Master's Thesis was completed in collaboration with CStrider, and working in a pair with fellow student Aya Salih.
Although CStrider designs autonomous vessels, current laws still state that an employee must be on board at all times in case of emergency. The aim of this project was to design the ship officer's bridge, taking into account their comfort and safety, as well as their driving needs should manual operation be required.
The design process included brainstorming, utilzing evaluation matrices, physical prototyping and user testing, and CAD renderings for the final concept.
The Problem & Proposed Solution
The under utilization of waterways in major cities drove CStrider to develop the concept for autonomous electric water taxis for integration into pre-existing public transit infrastructure. The vessels will carry a maximum of 12 passengers and according to current legislation, one staff member must be on board at all times.
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The Design Process
After conducting interviews with industry experts, four focus areas were selected that we referred to as subsytems to help narrow the scope of brain storming. A list of requirements was also determined based off of the input from both CStrider and the interviews. In each category numerous concepts were rapidly brainstormed and sketched. The concepts were then put through a morphological matrix, an elimination matrix, and then a pugh matrix until the final two concepts for physical prototyping were selected. These concepts were mocked up in CAD before protyping and testing ensued.
This concept known as the "comfort concept" featured a foldable chair and a height-adjustable desk. The paneled folding door goes only up towards a front wall.
The "space-saving concept" featured a only a leaning pad and a wall-mounted dashboard. The paneled folding wall wraps all the away around the corner.
The selected counting concept outwardly displays to passengers when the maximum capacity is reached. The figure is connected to a counter the ship officer holds.
Prototyping
A full-scale frame of the boat was built in conjunction with another thesis team which allowed us to simulate as close to life-like conditions as possible. Time constraints prevented sourcing of a paneled folding wall, but tape was set on the ground to indicate the boundaries of the designated area. The concepts were tested by licensed boat drivers with instructions to consider physical comfort, ease of use, feeling of safety from passengers, feeling of safety for driving the boat, and ease of usability of the dashboard. Role playing was done to simulate real-life use.
The space-saving concept:
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The comfort concept:
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The counting concept:
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The Final Concept
The final concept ended up being a combination of various facets from the prototyped concepts.
Notable features include a chair flips down to save space, but also features a leaning pad when folded. The dashboard is slim, though front-wall mounted to take up less space.
The paneled folding wall was requested to remain for an increased feeling of personal safety.
Ergonomic factors were considered resulting in a height-adjustable seat, a sun visor for the dashboard screens, the ability to tilt the dashboard screens, and large icons for the dashboard buttons.
Some additional features that were requested and added were: a locker for storage of personal items, a hook on the outside of the front wall so that umbrellas can be hung without tracking in water, a cup holder, and a fire extinguisher on hand.
The counting concept feedback was positive, though requested additional functions on the remote such as closing the doors and letting down the gangway.
