Contrary to the situation of bridges, there is no regulatory support which completely covers the layout, design, and arrangement of the engine department. As mentioned earlier, IMO MSC/Circ.834 gives only a brief description of the nonmandatory guidelines for engine-room layout, design, and arrangement.
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has developed a standard, ISO 11064, which gives advice on the ergonomic design of control centres. Other ISO standards which might be of interest are for instance:
• ISO 9241 ‘Ergonomics of human-system interaction—Part 400: Principles and requirements for physical input devices’.
• ISO 9355-3:2006, ‘Ergonomic requirements for the design of displays and control actuators—Part 3: Control actuators’.
• ISO 9241-110:2006, ‘Ergonomics of human-system interaction—Part 110: Dialogue principles’.
Some classification societies also offer frameworks to support the construction of engine rooms and engine control rooms but this lack of a uniting set of rules and regulations implies difficulties to provide an overview of this extensive area. Much more research is needed, and this need is currently being addressed in a project at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
