Future of Maritime Autonomy: Cybersecurity, Trust and Mariner's Situation Awareness

Abstract

As technology evolves, the level of automation in the maritime industry grows, and will continue to grow significantly, as the industry strives for fully autonomous vessels. Current maritime operations on board rely on a mixture of automated processes, human decision making, and human interventions. In the future autonomy may lead to the removal of the mariner physically on board, increasing remotely operated vessels. The remote nature of these operations will subject mariners to new operational risks, such as a potential reduction in Situational Awareness (SA) and/or cyber threats. This article will discuss the importance of SA in maritime operations, and the potential challenges facing this when engaging in remote operations. Secondly, this article will discuss the training that mariners may need to navigate within such a remote operational landscape. Lastly, it is fundamental to understand how mariners currently manage higher risk operations (e.g. heavy traffic and port arrival/departure), and how this will change with the introduction of remote operations.