Autonomous ships: A research strategy for Human Factors research in autonomous shipping

Abstract

The intention of this paper is to present some identified tasks for Human Factors and design research within the area om Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS). It targeted for the research project SFI AutoShip at NTNU in Trondheim but might also be of some general interest for the HF and design community within the maritime domain. The research areas deal with human-automation interaction as it might manifest itself between operators and the human-machine interface in the Remote Operation Centre (ROC), between autonomous and conventional ships at sea and between crews of partly manned ships and the automation. Eight research tasks have been identified and are presented in this paper.