The Ocean-Going Autonomous Ship—Challenges and Threats (original) (raw)
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THE FUTURE OF SEMI- AUTONOMOUS AND AUTONOMOUS VESSELS
Autonomus Vessels, 2020
Abstract There is a paradigm shift in the merchant and military fields that promises safer, eco-friendly, and cost-effective autonomous vessels. Autonomous vessels have considerably attracted the attention of maritime scientists over the recent past. Many research and development projects have explored the feasibility of consolidating this game-changing technology that will see vessels traversing oceans and seas without onboard crew and controlled remotely. As initiatives and projects to make such ideas feasible to gain momentum in global shipping, their prospects remain in the spotlight. This paper examines the future of unmanned vessels in merchant and military fields, including the potential challenges associated with such vessels. The study sample consisted of a total of 341 participants and data collected through online questionnaires from different companies and organisations involved in marine technology. By analysing the data using SPSS software v.21, the results reveal that the full transition of autonomous shipping in future is inevitable. Furthermore, the results show that the adoption of autonomous ships will enhance the carrying capacity of the vessel, eliminate manning costs, and consequently improve operational cost-savings. By replacing the onboard crew with this game-changing technology, the marine industry can gain economically from the elimination of operational expenses and increased cargo carrying capacities. Besides, the safety of the entire industry can be enhanced by eliminating the human factor, which is perceived to be the cause of many incidents and accidents. However, autonomous vessels are still associated with certain flaws, such as cyber-attacks and security issues. Having no on-board crew seems to be very critical, and it is still questionable whether autonomous vessels will fill this gap. It is still uncertain whether the new sea transit paradigm will go semi-autonomous or fully autonomous in future, but the prospects of either form is inevitable. Keywords: Semi-autonomous, fully-autonomous, unmanned, safety, human error, security, cyber-attack, cost.
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Recent years have seen the rapid development of autonomous ships [...]
Operations of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships
TransNav, the International Journal on Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation
Advancing technologies create unique opportunities for constructing autonomous ships, which, in turn, raise growing interest of the maritime industry, shipowners in particular. These authors have analyzed actions taken in this field and some aspects related to the operations of maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS). The presented case study refers to a ship with a skeleton crew on a deep sea voyage, where the ship's autonomy is narrowed to the fourth stage of transport task-sea voyage and its navigational aspect. http://www.transnav.eu the International Journal on Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation Volume 13 Number 4
AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS IN MARITIME OPERATIONS
POLISH NAVAL ACADEMY, WYDAWNICTWO AKADEMICKIE AMW, 2023
The monograph presents possible areas of use for autonomous maritime systems operating in air, underwater and surface space, as well as hybrid vehicles and drone swarms in the maritime domain. In addition to military systems, which are the main area of interest, the publication discusses the development of autonomous technologies in shipping (autonomous ships), as well as other dual-use technology applications. The book is the result of several years of the author's research into the challenges and threats to maritime security The author presents the advantages and limitations of autonomous systems in operations in fleet structures with a particular focus on the Baltic Sea environment. CHAPTER 1. Open Access
Unmanned Maritime Systems and Unmanned Maritime Vehicles
The term Unmanned Maritime Systems (UMS) covers Unmanned Maritime Vehicles (UMVs) and, like Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), are not easily classi ed under existing legal regimes.1 Questions that have been asked include: whether they should be treated as vessels under international law; whether they are considered ‘vessels’ under the International Regulations for Preventing Collision at Sea 1972 (COLREGs); and what the current US and EU perspectives are. The discussions and debates regarding de nitions, the need for legal framework and social and ethical concerns have long been on the table.
Can unmanned ships improve navigational safety?
Autonomous vehicles are appearing in ever-more fields such as aviation, public transportation and the automotive sector. That's why it is not unlikely to see the deployment of unmanned merchant ships at some point in time. The collaborative research project MUNIN originates from this idea and aims to develop and verify a respective concept. The ship will primarily be guided by automated on-board decision-making systems but can also be controlled by a remote operator from a Shore Control Centre. The motives behind unmanned and autonomous ships include the shortage of skilled mariners and the facilitation of slow steaming strategies. This shall reduce the use of fuel and thus decrease ship exhaust gas emissions and operating expenses. Another motive, on which this paper will focus on, is the potential to improve navigational safety. So-called "human errors" are claimed to be responsible for the majority of accidents at sea. Thus, substituting the overtired officer of the watch by a nautical officer ashore bears potential to improve the safety of navigation.
Maritime Technical Journal, 2022
The continuous development of autonomous and unmanned technology is accelerating the adoption of unmanned vessels for various maritime operations. Despite the technological developments there is still a lack of clear regulatory and organizational frameworks for testing and exploiting the potential of unmanned surface vessels (USVs) in real-world maritime conditions. Such real-world testing becomes ever more complex when operating in multiple nations territorial waters. In May 2019 USV ‘Maxlimer’ crossed the North Sea from the United Kingdom to Belgium and back, carrying goods, to demonstrate the ability of unmanned surface vessels to interact with real marine traffic in an uncontrolled environment. The paper presents this mission in light of the current state of marine autonomy projects as well as the regulatory works conducted by various organizations worldwide.
Safety challenges related to autonomous ships in mixed navigational environments
WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs
Digitalization and technological advancements have accelerated the development and emergence of autonomous and remotely controlled ships in the maritime transport sector. This type of vessels consists of highly intelligent and adaptive functionalities, equipped with a variety of external sensors and actuators to gain situation awareness, automated control and adaptive maneuvering for achieving more efficient and sustainable operations. There are, however, many safety and reliability assurance challenges in autonomous operational and navigation systems due to their complex, adaptive, and non-deterministic nature. The issue of a mixed navigational environment where conventionally manned, remotely controlled, and unmanned vessels are interacting at the same sea area can be considered as one of the major obstacles in adopting of autonomous ships. Vulnerabilities can increase due to the potential divergence of vessel state awareness between autonomous operational systems and humans in such situations. Little research to date has dealt with such safety issues that a mix of human-operated, remotely controlled, and autonomous vessels will bring. This study explores the potential safety challenges related to autonomous ship operations in a mixed navigational environment and discusses several possible ways to reduce the same issues related to the identified safety risks, while including a discussion for possible future practice and research interests in ship navigation.
The Autonomous Pilot of Unmanned Surface Vessels
Unmanned Surface Vessels (USV) or (in some cases) Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV) are boats that operate on the surface of the water without any crews [1]. USVs were earliest used in minesweeping applications [2], since then, advances in USV control systems and navigation technologies have been achieved which resulting in USVs that can be operated remotely (by an operator on land or on a nearby vessel) [3], USVs that operate with partially autonomous control, and USVs (ASVs) that operate fully autonomously [2]. Nowadays, they are also being used in commercial shipping [4], environmental and climate monitoring, seafloor mapping [4] [5], passenger ferries [6], robotic research [7], surveillance, inspection of bridges and other infrastructure [8], military, naval operations [2] and et cetera, thanks to the advances in USV control systems and navigation technologies.
Autonomous marine vehicles in sea surveillance as one of the COMPASS2020 project concerns
Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2019
Coordination Of Maritime assets for Persistent And Systematic Surveillance (COMPASS2020) is an EU H2020 project, which has as an overarching goal deployment of Unmanned Vehicles (UxV) - aerial, sea surface and underwater ones, in addition to manned offshore patrol vessels, to enhance current maritime border surveillance operations regarding detection of irregular migrants and narcotics smugglers. This paper gives an overview of several research projects on autonomous marine vehicles, as a key technological, organizational and legislative issue within the project scope: Kaisa, an autonomous vessel prototype built at SAMK Faculty of Logistics and Maritime Technology in Rauma (Finland). Autonomous Ships 101 from Solent University in Southampton (England). A review of other articles has served as a comparative analysis to the surveillance assets proposed by COMPASS2020.