A human perspective on maritime autonomy

Abstract

As for all of the transport segments, autonomy is gaining increasing interest by researchers and for development in the maritime industry, and introducing autonomy is expected to create new possibilities to increase efficiency and safety. Autonomy could lead to drastic changes in roles and responsibilities for involved agents (both technical systems and humans), and these changes will be an important driver for changing the rules which regulate the responsibilities of the involved actors in the maritime domain. This paper suggests a perspective of autonomy as a process of change as opposed to a defined state. The paper discusses three areas that warrant more attention in the development of autonomy in navigation in the maritime industry. Firstly; rather than the traditional reductionist safety models, it considers complexity in maritime systems with increased autonomy and explore systemic safety models to amplify positive human performance variability. Secondly; it argues that humans will be important also in systems with increased autonomy, and discusses the human involvement on strategic, tactical and operational levels. Thirdly; it discusses the importance of defining the concepts responsibility, authority and control from the perspective of humans, rather than that of the vessel.