The Autonomous Shipping Era. Operational, Regulatory, and Quality Challenges

Abstract

The article provides a description of the Autonomous ship, studies existing relevant projects, and examines the related Operational, Regulatory, and Quality assurance challenges raised due to the development and actual deployment of such vessels in the near future. After reviewing the main operational procedures, existing regulations, and quality assurance standards, a number of possible solutions and approaches to overcome the identified challenges are indicated. Some of the conclusions may be used not only in the Autonomous ships but also in traditionally manned vessels.

A Study of the Application Barriers to the Use of Autonomous Ships Posed by the Good Seamanship Requirement of COLREGs

“…In June 2019, MSC 101 considered a progress report on the RSE and approved interim guidelines for MASS trials (Bureau Veritas, 2019; Lloyd's Register, 2019). In addition, some experts have explored the potential conflicts between the operation of unmanned vessels and existing private maritime laws (Carey, 2017; Karlis, 2018; Rodriguez-Delgado, 2018; Veal et al, 2019), as well as the technical risks and legal problems involved in the introduction of unmanned vessels (Aro and Heiskari, 2017) and the possible challenges of autonomous ships (Komianos, 2018; Perera, 2018; Ringbom, 2019).…”

Preliminary Results of a System-theoretic Assessment of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships’ Safety

“…Although the number of mitigation measures involving software solutions is comparable to these of hardware, it must be noted that software is likely to have much greater influence on autonomous ships' safety performance than it has on today's merchant vessels (Lloyd's Register 2017;Komianos 2018;Man et al 2018). Virtually all components of the system will rely on software to the extent that cannot be determined at the point.…”

Connect and Protect: Requirements for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship in Urban Passenger Transportation

“…The Danish maritime authorities published a report on the regulatory barriers to the use of autonomous ships, suggesting suitable steps toward tackling these barriers, such as creating new laws for autonomous ships or amending existing ones [17]. Another work surveyed relevant regulations that might affect the operational capacity of autonomous ships [23]. The authors discussed regulations like SOLAS, COLREGS (International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea), and others in detail, and pointed out that the regulations in their current form limit the deployment of autonomous ships.…”

“…The authors discussed regulations like SOLAS, COLREGS (International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea), and others in detail, and pointed out that the regulations in their current form limit the deployment of autonomous ships. The work presented in [23] suggested generic communication requirements in order to satisfy certain regulations such as the availability of delay-free, reliable, fast and secure communication between the ship and control center. relevance to the APS is given below: -Remote Control Center(RCC): The implementation of such controlling entity is common across most works involving autonomous ships.…”