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Characterization of autonomy in merchant ships

Abstract

utonomous ships are creating significant interest
in the maritime world and the need for a more consistent
definition framework is very apparent. This paper suggests
building a framework based on the SAE J3016 standard for
autonomous cars, but to extend it where necessary. One main
difference is that ships are larger, slower and fewer than cars, but that consequences of accidents may be more severe. This is a typical characteristic of industrial autonomous systems. For ships one also must consider a more complex functional system (duration of voyage, energy, steering, hull integrity and stability etc.) as well as a very likely possibility that autonomous ships will be supervised form shore. This points to a constrained autonomy, where the system has programmable limits to the actions it may take. This creates a more complex taxonomy, in terms of the operational scenario possibilities, in how the control problem is solved and how responsibilities are divided between humans and computer systems.
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Category

Academic chapter

Language

English

Author(s)

Affiliation

  • SINTEF Community / Mobility
  • SINTEF Ocean / Energi og transport
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Year

2018

Publisher

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

Book

Proceedings of MTS/IEEE Oceans'18, Techno-Ocean 2018 - OTO'18

ISBN

9781538616536

View this publication at Norwegian Research Information Repository