The maritime industry is constantly looking for ways to reduce cost, increase safety and improve operational efficiency. Given current trends in technology development, an increased use of automation is soon expected to perform central ship functions. This has consequences for the roles of seafarers.
The primary role of seafarers, especially bridge crew, is to ensure safety of the vessel. Changing the roles of seafarers because of technological advancements (i.e., automation) has consequences for safety. Regardless of the autonomous function's ability to safely navigate the vessel, it is the captain's legal responsibility. Given this potential conflict, it is therefore important to better understand the interaction between humans and automated systems. Special focus is needed on the system's ability to convey important and relevant information to the human such that they are kept "in the information loop". As complexity of automation increases, e.g., by using advanced algorithms, so does the human?s challenge to understand the system's reasoning.
Automation transparency is one way to alleviate this by providing users with insight into the inner workings of the system. However, there is a lack of research regarding automation transparency and its relevance to complex operational settings such as maritime autonomous navigation. Therefore, this project aims to address how automation transparency can provide performance benefits in the supervision of autonomous vessels.
Given the novelty of autonomy in the Maritime industry, there is a need to generate knowledge and understanding its role, and the functions and tasks operators perform in achieving safe operation of autonomous vessels. The outcomes of the research, therefore, is relevant for developing knowledge and concrete methods for designing for ship autonomy solutions, development of international maritime regulations regarding autonomous vessels, the development of class requirements such that the performance and safety of the system as a whole is ensured.
The maritime industry is constantly looking for ways to reduce cost, increase safety and improve operational efficiency. Given current trends in technology development, it is expected that, in the near future, at least some functions on vessels will be fully automated. This has consequences for the roles of seafarers.
The primary role of seafarers, especially bridge crew, is to maintain safety during the vessel’s voyage at all times. Changing the roles of seafarers as a result of technological advancements (i.e. automation) has consequences for
how safety is ensured and how a shipowner can prove adherence to safety requirements. Shore-based control centres (SCC) are proposed for meeting safety requirements for remote monitoring and control of autonomous vessels (AV). Therefore, it is essential to understand, evaluate and assess SCC operator functions, tasks and performance when monitoring and controlling autonomous vessels.
The primary objective of the research is to understand, evaluate and assess the performance of shore control center (SCC) operators when monitoring and controlling autonomous vessels. Secondary objectives include mapping the distribution of functions between vessels and SCC, what tasks the SCC operators are expected to perform, and what information and interaction requirements can be defined to enable task performance, including proposals for design.
Given the novelty of autonomy in the Maritime industry, there is a need to generate knowledge and understanding the role of SCCs, and the functions and tasks operators perform in achieving safe operation of autonomous vessels. The outcomes of the research, therefore, is relevant for developing knowledge and concrete methods for designing for SCC solutions, development of international maritime regulations regarding autonomous vessels, the development of class requirements such that the performance and safety of the system as a whole is ensured.
