Automation of Drilling Processes in the Petroleum Industry: Consequences for Occupational Health and Safety, 2011

Technological innovations and increased automation are necessary in order to realize the remaining value on the Norwegian continental shelf. The trend towards deepwater and subsea operations, and more challenging wells, requires new technologies and work processes. New technology renders possible real-time advisory systems for the driller, and also automated operations safeguarding against human errors. At the same time, automating drilling processes may produce several challenges for occupational health, safety and environment (HSE) offshore. In this research proposal we focus on these challenges and how they may occur and how we can solve them in a best possible way. Automation can be defined as the full or partial replacement of a function previously carried out by the human operator. There is an extensive amount of research on automation consequences in several industries, which has found that automation can have both beneficial and negative effects on human performance. However, we find a lack of research on HSE issues regarding automation in the petroleum industry. An emphasis on human-automation interaction when considering aspects of occupational health and safety of automation of drilling processes in the petroleum industry is thus necessary as automation changes operator functional requirements, and consequently often imposes new coordination and monitoring demands of the operator of the technology. Based on this acknowledgement, the main objective of this project is to throw light on the interaction between human operators and automation systems in drilling operations. Hence, occupational health and safety? We aim at applying both explorative and experimental methodological approaches in answering this research question.要实现挪威大陆架（Norwegian continental shelf）的剩余油气价值，技术革新与自动化水平提升不可或缺。当前深水、水下作业以及高难度钻井的发展趋势，亟需配套的新技术与作业流程。新技术可构建面向司钻（driller）的实时咨询系统，同时实现自动化作业以防范人为差错。但与此同时，钻井流程自动化也会为海上职业健康、安全与环境（HSE）带来诸多挑战。 本研究提案聚焦上述挑战，探讨其产生机制与最优解决方案。自动化可定义为将原本由人类操作员执行的职能进行全部或部分替代。现有多个行业针对自动化影响开展了大量研究，结果表明自动化对人类作业表现兼具积极与消极作用。然而，现有研究尚未涉及石油工业中自动化相关的HSE问题。鉴于自动化会改变操作员的职能要求，进而往往对技术操作员提出新的协调与监控需求，因此在考量石油工业钻井流程自动化的职业健康与安全维度时，需重点关注人-自动化系统交互（human-automation interaction）。基于此认知，本项目的核心目标是阐明钻井作业中人类操作员与自动化系统之间的交互关系。那么职业健康与安全该如何保障？我们拟采用探索性与实验性相结合的方法论路径，以解答这一研究问题。