WP05 Safe and Secure Communication

Lead:

SINTEF Digital

For autonomous ships to be acceptable for commercial use, they must be at least as safe as conventional vehicles in similar service.
It is expected that future regulations will require control and navigation systems for autonomous ships to be certified according to functional safety requirements.
A communication solution supporting an autonomous operation will thus be considered as an integral part of the safety system, and require safety certification.

Safety can be defined as the freedom from unacceptable risk of harm to humans, either directly or indirectly as a result of damage to property or to the environment.
Safety can be achieved through various mechanisms: physical barriers, work processes, training, testing, monitoring and control, emergency response.
Functional safety are barriers in the shape of electrical and programmable control systems which must operate correctly in order to ensure safe operation.

Functional safety requirements governs the entire life cycle of a safety system, from concept and specification, through design and development, to maintenance and decommissioning.
Developing a safety system is much more complex, time consuming and costly than a similar non-safety system.

Certification according to functional safety standards is too costly and time consuming for providers of wireless communication solutions.
To provide safe communication despite using an "unsafe" communication protocol, an application level end-to-end safety architecture is proposed.