Toward Digitalization of Maritime Transport?

Abstract

Although maritime transport is the backbone of world commerce, its digitalization lags significantly behind when we consider some basic facts. This work verifies the state-of-the-art as it currently applies to eight digital domains: Autonomous vehicles and robotics; artificial intelligence; big data; virtual reality, augmented and mixed reality; internet of things; the cloud and edge computing; digital security; and 3D printing and additive engineering. It also provides insight into each of the three sectors into which this industry has been divided: Ship design and shipbuilding; shipping; and ports. The work, based on a systematic literature review, demonstrates that there are domains on which almost no formal study has been done thus far and concludes that there are major areas that require attention in terms of research. It also illustrates the increasing interest on the subject, arising from the necessity of raising the maritime transport industry to the same level of digitalization as other industries.

Big data and artificial intelligence in the maritime industry: a bibliometric review and future research directions

“…To the best of our knowledge, in the maritime context there have been two review studies on big data (Yang et al 2019;Mirović, Miličević, and Ines 2018) and two on digitalisation (Sanchez-Gonzalez et al 2019;Fruth and Teuteberg 2017). The present study is more comprehensive than previous studies in terms of quality and spread of included studies that use big data and AI in the maritime context.…”

“…Future research: All of the studies in this sub-cluster mention some challenges due to the digitalisation wave in shipping. The most important issue is the risk of cyber-attacks (Fruth and Teuteberg 2017;Sanchez-Gonzalez et al 2019), followed by the integration of new systems and technologies (Heilig and Voß 2017). Also, Fruth and Teuteberg (2017) argued for more theoretical research that can map the behaviour of different actors within the maritime supply chain.…”

“…Studies on the synthesis of big data application in maritime are rare, which has created a gap in the academic literature due to the importance of big data and AI in maritime operations (Yang et al 2019;Mirović, Miličević, and Obradović 2018). Big data-and AI-enhanced maritime operations can contribute to the economic and environmental aspects of the maritime business (Sanchez-Gonzalez et al 2019). Maritime trade accounts for approximately 80% of world trade (UNCTAD 2018) and the industry faces many challenges due to its vastness (Brouer, Karsten, and Pisinger 2016) as well as continuously evolving regulatory requirements (Lee, Kwon, and Ruan 2019).…”

“…Unlike the present study, Mirović, Miličević, and Obradović (2018) did not follow a systematic approach to literature selection, which can lead to biased findings. Fruth and Teuteberg (2017) and Sanchez-Gonzalez et al (2019) explicitly focused on digitalisation, although both used big data in their keyword search. While Fruth and Teuteberg (2017) did not include AI aspects in the maritime domain, Sanchez-Gonzalez et al 2019literature search process is rather abstract and may not be reproducible.…”

From Seafarers to E-farers: Maritime Cadets’ Perceptions Towards Seafaring Jobs in the Industry 4.0

“…Ever since the introduction of the Fourth Industrial Revolution concept at the 2016 Davos Forum, efforts are being made across industries to implement the concept in practice. Industry 4.0 is being implemented simultaneously across several maritime industries, including shipping (Shipping 4.0), port (Port 4.0), shipbuilding (Smart ship 4.0), and marine (Marine 4.0) [5][6][7][8][9]. Among these, the Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS) is gaining attention for posing a new challenge to innovative growth technology [7,9].…”